South Korea has written 2.3 times 2025's Wegovy and Mounjaro prescriptions in eight months

The report gives two causes for the rise: telemedicine platforms where patients pick a drug and dose before finding a clinic willing to prescribe it ^[22], and cheaper Mounjaro in Japan ^[9]. The counts come from the Drug Utilization Review system ^[1], and the report did not disclose how many of them came through telemedicine or how many patients stand behind them.

A medical industry official, unnamed in the report, said wider access is a positive development but that choosing a drug and dose before finding a prescriber warrants caution ^[13]. "GLP-1 obesity drugs are not simple diet aids but prescription medicines that require a doctor's order," the official said ^[14].

The two causes pull the series in different directions. We would expect a prescription obtained in Japan to be absent from a Korean review-system count, so each patient on the "sushi-zaro" route is one the 2.79 million ^[3] cannot see. Customs sees only what it stops, and of the items held this year 63.3% came from Japan and 21.8% from China ^[12].

Korea's price for the lowest dose is 3.3 to 4.1 times Japan's ^[19]. A patient who crosses saves 195,000 to 265,000 won a month ^[19], and Japan's health ministry widened the gap in August with a 25% cut ^[10].

Price also shapes dosing at home. In August Korea wrote 173,340 prescriptions for the 5 mg Mounjaro dose and 38,242 for 7.5 mg, 77.9% fewer, and the report reads that as cost weighing on patients ^[6]. The comparison is two doses in one month, so some of the gap may be patients who stayed on 5 mg. The 12.5 mg and 15 mg doses grew 12.7 times and 20.5 times between June and August ^[8], yet together they came to 4,746 prescriptions, about 1% of the 465,365 combined prescriptions that month ^[21][15].

We think demand is real and the 2.3 times multiple undersells it, or rather undersells the current pace, because it sets eight months of 2026 against twelve of 2025 ^[3][2]. June through August alone came to 1,332,353 prescriptions, 9% above the whole of 2025 ^[20]. If the last four months of 2026 only repeat August's 465,365, the year closes at 4,651,452, about 3.8 times 2025 ^[23][15]. The counter-case is that the climb from January to July ^[4] has already stopped.

A second counter-case fits the same flat month ^[16]. Patients moving to Japan, where the 25% price cut landed in August ^[10], would flatten the Korean count while demand kept rising. Plateau and leak would both produce a flat Korean count. A September at or below 465,365 ^[15] would end our claim that volume is still climbing.