Weight-loss drug Wegovy to begin sales in Korea after 16-month wait

Weight-loss drug Wegovy will go on sale in the Korean market next month, about a year and a half after receiving regulatory approval in the country.

An injection pen of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy in Oslo, Norway, September 1, 2023. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Weight-loss drug Wegovy will go on sale in the Korean market next month, about a year and a half after receiving regulatory approval in the country.

The price for the blockbuster obesity drug is yet to be confirmed. If the retail price of a monthly dosage of Wegovy is set in a broadly compatible range to its predecessor Saxenda, as it is in the United States, it may come to around 500,000 won ($373), though actual prices would vary by pharmacy.

According to Novo Nordisk Korea, Wegovy's pre-filled syringe will be released in mid-October. The market release comes more than a year after the weight-loss drug was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in April of last year. Wegovy can be prescribed to patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kilograms per square meter or greater, or with a BMI between 27 and 30 and obesity-related health conditions such as high blood pressure.

Wegovy, a once-weekly injectable prescription drug, mimics the action of a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), helping to regulate appetite and food intake.

Novo Nordisk has already been a leading player in the Korean weight-loss drug market with Saxenda, the predecessor to Wegovy.

Both are effective GLP-1 receptor agonists, but Saxenda needs to be injected daily, whereas Wegovy requires only weekly injections. The new drug is also more effective in reducing weight, according to the Danish drugmaker.

Wegovy is currently available in 12 countries, including the United States, Denmark, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates, with Korea set to join the list as the second Asian country following Japan.

Korea is the fourth-largest weight-loss market in the world, as obesity medication revenue in the country has been growing constantly from 134 billion won in 2019 to 178 billion won last year, according to data compiled by market tracker IQVIA.

While the price for Wegovy in Korea is yet to be officially decided, its prescription is not likely to be covered by insurance, similar to other weight-loss medications available in the country.

In the United States, a monthly dosage of Wegovy, or four pre-filled 0.25-milligram pens, is between $1,544 and $1,781 without insurance coverage, while the monthly cost of Saxenda, consisting of five 0.5-milliliter pens, stands from $1,590 to $1,736, according to GoodRx. Data from Drugs.com shows that the monthly prices of both Wegovy and Saxenda start from $1,430.

In Japan, where Wegovy was launched in February of this year, its monthly cost is around 43,000 yen, or $290, without any reimbursement.

Updated, Sept. 11: Added information and overseas data regarding Wegovy's pricing, and details about the Korean weight-loss market.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]