A range of blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs could help shift the trajectory of the global obesity epidemic, which affects over one billion people worldwide, the World Health Organization said Monday.

A new generation of appetite-suppressing drugs called GLP-1 agonists -- which includes blockbuster brands Ozempic and Mounjaro -- has become massively popular in recent years.

On Monday, the United Nations health agency issued its first guidelines on how such drugs could be used as a key tool for treating obesity in adults as a chronic, relapsing disease.

More than 3.7 million people died from illnesses related to being overweight or obese in 2022, according to WHO figures -- more than top infectious killers malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined.