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Mounjaro prescriptions top 1.5 mil. in 10 months, teen use surges
Eli Lilly's obesity treatment drug Mounjaro / Courtesy of Eli Lilly
By Park Ung
Obesity treatment drug Mounjaro has been prescribed more than 1.5 million times in the 10 months since its domestic launch, reflecting surging demand for the weight-loss treatment.
Concerns are growing about abuse among younger patients, as more than half of prescriptions were concentrated among people in their 20s and 30s, while prescriptions for teenagers rose 1.5 times this year alone.
According to drug utilization review (DUR) data submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service to Rep. Han Zee-a of the People Power Party on Wednesday, Mounjaro was prescribed 1,501,161 times between its domestic launch last August through May this year.
Mounjaro, developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, is a once-weekly injectable that acts on GLP-1, a hormone that regulates appetite and blood sugar, to aid weight loss.
Monthly prescriptions rose about 14.7 times, from 18,579 in August last year to 273,140 in May this year.
By age group, people in their 30s accounted for the largest share at 36 percent, followed by those in their 40s at 27.1 percent, those in their 20s at 16.9 percent and those in their 50s at 14.6 percent.
Prescriptions for teenagers have continued to rise. Monthly prescriptions for the age group stood at 82 at launch and surpassed 1,000 in December last year. The trend has continued this year, with monthly prescriptions rising 1.5-fold from 1,739 in January to 2,594 in May.
Mounjaro has also overtaken another obesity treatment, Wegovy, which launched about 10 months earlier, in total prescriptions. Wegovy was prescribed a cumulative 1,228,867 times from its October 2024 launch through May this year. People in their 20s and 30s accounted for 46.4 percent of that total.
The pattern has fueled concerns about the misuse of GLP-1 obesity treatments. The drugs are intended for diabetes patients or those with severe obesity, but are increasingly perceived as simple weight-loss treatments, leading to unnecessary prescriptions, particularly among younger people.
The government is also reviewing a plan to designate GLP-1 obesity treatments as drugs at risk of misuse.
“Mounjaro prescriptions have topped 1.5 million just 10 months after launch, yet the government's response has been limited to attaching a warning label about misuse and overuse," Han said. “We need to shift GLP-1 obesity drug management from distribution control to prescription control using the DUR system. This would prevent misuse for adolescent or cosmetic purposes, while still ensuring patients' access to treatment.”