Hanmi's Eppe is due this month at 129,800 won wholesale for four weeks, against about 210,000 to 270,000 won for Wegovy and Mounjaro. At the 299,200 won maintenance dose, Seoul Economic Daily puts the gap at 17% to 19%.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 13%
- Operator
- Operator 37%
- Investor
- Investor 50%
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives60
- Confidence62
Prime's 8.1% three-year GLP-1 persistence figure comes from patients who started during shortages
Prime Therapeutics' study, reported in June 2025, found 8.1% of 5,780 non-diabetic GLP-1 obesity patients stayed on therapy for all three years. The cohort began in 2021 and early 2022 amid shortages, a weak base for projecting revenue or spend on patients starting after the shortages.
Publishers:managedhealthcareexecutive.com
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption20
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence62
GLP-1 drugs outsold generative AI in 2025 on Exponential View's own estimate of AI revenue
Exponential View says GLP-1 sales reached $76 billion in 2025, ahead of its own $63 billion estimate for generative AI. The $13 billion lead rests on that estimate, and the retention studies the piece cites show heavy attrition.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption11
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives40
- Confidence50
Gallup's revised survey finds 11% of US adults taking GLP-1s for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024
Gallup found 11% of US adults now take a GLP-1 for weight loss, up from 3% in 2024. Its survey of 5,065 adults counts users, not spending, so food and insurance planners still need their own dollar figures.
Publishers:news.gallup.com
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption11
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence66
South Korea has written 2.3 times 2025's Wegovy and Mounjaro prescriptions in eight months
South Korea logged 2,789,992 Wegovy and Mounjaro prescriptions through August, about 2.3 times all of 2025. The data came from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service via a lawmaker's office, and the monthly run-rate now sits near 465,000.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption78
- Hype gap+12
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence64
Mounjaro at a third of Korea's price draws Koreans to Japanese clinics
Korean customs detected 5,030 illegal obesity-drug imports through August, up from four in 2024, as Koreans fly to Japan for cheaper Mounjaro. Korea's visible answer so far is tighter border checks, with no reported cut to clinic prices for the uninsured drug.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
Korea's regulator approved Hanmi Pharmaceutical's efpeglenatide, the first homegrown GLP-1 obesity drug, after patients lost 9.02% of body weight in 40 weeks. That is less than Wegovy and Mounjaro showed in longer trials, so Hanmi's case rests on milder side effects and a price for long-term patients that it has not yet set.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption8
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives60
- Confidence58
Price decides whether Hanmi's Eppe takes share from Mounjaro and Wegovy
Hanmi Pharmaceutical's Eppe, Korea's first home-grown GLP-1 obesity drug, is approved and expected to launch at about half Wegovy's 200,000-won-plus price. Its trial weight loss trails both incumbents, so the launch price will set how much of a Mounjaro-dominated market it can reach.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption8
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives40
- Confidence50
Hanmi's Cheaper Obesity Drug Eppe Could Undercut Lilly's Mounjaro More Than Novo's Wegovy
Hanmi Pharmaceutical's Eppe could launch in Korea before year-end at an estimated 150,000 won for four weeks, 45% below Mounjaro's cheapest listing. Lilly won about 85% of the market at a higher price than Wegovy, so Novo, which has cut once already, is the likelier incumbent to cut again.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence40
Japan's obesity society warns cosmetic Mounjaro users off crash dieting on the drug
Japan's obesity society warned cosmetic GLP-1 users of side-effect risks, as 35 of about 950 Mounjaro side-effect reports involved dieting or cosmetic use. The health ministry separately said the drugs should not be used casually as weight-loss pills.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+5
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
Seized Wegovy parcels outnumber licensed shipments nine to one in Korea's customs data
Korea's grey channel for weight-loss drugs now dwarfs the licensed one by case count, and a foreign web price that domestic prescriptions cannot match is doing the work.
Reality
- Evidence68
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives40
- Confidence62
Novo Nordisk faces more than 90 New Jersey suits blaming Ozempic and Wegovy for vision loss
One personal injury firm has filed more than 90 New Jersey suits claiming Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy caused sudden vision loss. Denmark has awarded about $55,600 a patient for the same injury, the only price on record, while studies of whether the drugs cause it still disagree.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives65
- Confidence50
Off-label GLP-1 prescribing reaches one in eleven US children aged 8 to 11 with obesity
Prescribing has outrun the approval label for US children aged 8 to 11 with obesity. The trial behind the benefit claim followed them for 68 weeks. Those 68 weeks are the entire developmental record so far.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption72
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives62
- Confidence55
FDA investigates possible link between GLP-1 drugs and rare eye condition amid New Jersey lawsuits
The FDA is investigating whether GLP-1 drugs cause sudden vision loss, and the New Jersey filings number in the dozens. The market those drugs sell into is projected at $92 billion this year.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption74
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives62
- Confidence42
Denmark has paid 27 GLP-1 vision-loss claims at about $56,000 each
More than 90 New Jersey suits and dozens more against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly turn on a warning the FDA has not written while four other jurisdictions added theirs. Denmark's payouts are the only money that has moved so far.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption55
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives65
- Confidence45
Novo is piloting Claude Science on drug discovery problems its own scientists named
The Danish drugmaker will test Anthropic's science workbench on specific R&D workflows while an earlier company-wide OpenAI agreement keeps running alongside it. Bloomberg reported that financial terms were not disclosed.
Reality
- Evidence52
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+45
- Incentives82
- Confidence58
One phone call about an oversized order turned a hunting product into a garden business
The Federal Reserve says reaching customers is the top operational problem for small employers. One owner's account suggests part of that problem is detection, and the proximity that catches such signals is the first thing growth takes away.
Reality
- Evidence34
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives55
- Confidence44
Medicare's $50 GLP-1 lane excludes the diagnoses that justify the drug
The Bridge pilot prices by FDA label rather than medical need, routing sicker patients back to Part D copays. KFF's own math assumes three of four eligible people never enroll.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption34
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives66
- Confidence52
Korea's weight-drug depression finding rests on 846 users. The 4.2x ideation number on fewer.
A national survey of 27,741 adults reports 1.9 times the depression among prescribed weight-loss drug users, and 4.2 times the suicidal ideation among those who regained weight. The exposed group is 3% of the sample.
Reality
- Evidence34
- Adoption66
- Hype gap+41
- Incentives44
- Confidence33
Bariatric volumes down 34.1% while GLP-1 use rose 140%: the service line is moving
A 2026 JAMA Surgery analysis shows surgical obesity care losing a third of its volume in two years. The spend has not vanished; it has moved to the pharmacy benefit, where coverage decides who gets treated.
Reality
- Evidence56
- Adoption74
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives66
- Confidence54