Application for National Health Insurance for "Half-Price" New Drug... Will Obesity Medication Prices Fall?

[Anchor]

Domestic pharmaceutical companies are challenging the obesity treatment market currently dominated by Wegovy and Mounjaro. Hanmi Pharm's obesity treatment injection, "Epe," is set to be released as early as this month. The supply price is around 130,000 won per month of administration, which is about half the price of existing imported drugs. On top of this, the manufacturer of Wegovy has applied for domestic national health insurance coverage for Wegovy, signaling the full-scale ignition of price competition in the obesity treatment market.

Reporter Han Sung-hee has the details.

[Reporter]

A pharmacy street in Jongno-gu, Seoul, known as a mecca for obesity treatments.

People continue to flock here in hopes of getting Mounjaro or Wegovy even a little cheaper.

[Kim Duk-young / Ilsan 3-dong, Goyang-si: I just heard rumors from people around that the medicine is cheap, so I came. The cheapest I've managed to find before was 400,000 won, and this place seems about 40,000 to 50,000 won cheaper.]

With treatment prices exceeding hundreds of thousands of won placing a heavy burden on patients, people are visiting this area where they can buy the drugs tens of thousands of won cheaper than in their own neighborhoods.

While cases of smuggling obesity treatments from countries like Japan, where prices are lower than in Korea, are surging, Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy, recently applied to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service for national health insurance coverage for Wegovy.

The number of domestic obesity treatment prescriptions skyrocketed from 50,000 cases in 2024 to 1.86 million cases in the first half of this year alone.

The pharmaceutical company explains that this measure is intended to expand treatment opportunities for obesity patients.

Indeed, there are expectations that the treatment burden will ease for super-obese patients who face high risks of chronic diseases or complications.

[Kim Yu-hyun / Professor of Family Medicine, CHA University Hospital: In reality, there are quite a many cases where patients stop treatment because of the price. While the efficacy actually gets better as you step up the dosage, some people cannot increase it sufficiently due to the financial burden.]

On the other hand, given the reality that even medical institutions unrelated to obesity or diabetes have been prescribing obesity treatment injections for cosmetic purposes, concerns are also being raised that this might simply drain national health insurance finances.

[Lee Soo-jin / Democratic Party Lawmaker (During Today's Parliamentary Audit): Reimbursement criteria must be set properly. Will you take this into good consideration when creating the guidelines?]

[Hong Seung-kwan / President of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service: Yes, we will take it into consideration.]

[Lee Soo-jin / Democratic Party Lawmaker: You will need to work together to ensure that the budget does not leak.]

In countries like France, national health insurance funds are allocated only to patients who genuinely need treatment, such as those with super obesity, while excluding simple weight loss purposes. Discussions on applying health insurance to obesity treatments are expected to accelerate in Korea as well.

(VJ: Shin So-young | Video Editing: Kim Jin-won)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.