The first domestically developed obesity treatment in Korea, “Effe,” created by local pharmaceutical company Hanmi Pharmaceutical, began to be actively prescribed at primary medical institutions on the 29th. This comes just over 20 days after it received marketing approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the 7th. With this Korean new drug entering a domestic obesity treatment market that has so far been led by “Mounjaro” from Eli Lilly in the United States and “Wegovy” from Novo Nordisk in Denmark, competition is expected to intensify further.

Effe is a once-weekly injectable that suppresses appetite and helps maintain satiety, and is available in five dose strengths: 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mg. In a Phase 3 clinical trial involving 448 Korean patients with obesity, it showed an average weight loss of 9.75% over 40 weeks. The supply price for the initial 4-week treatment is KRW 129,800, which is about half the starting dose price of Mounjaro. However, because the dose starts at 2 mg and is titrated up to 10 mg over 12 weeks, the 4-week supply price from week 13 onward increases to KRW 299,200. As it is not covered by the national health insurance, the out-of-pocket cost to patients varies by hospital. A Hanmi Pharmaceutical representative said, “We are supplying the product sequentially, focusing on hospitals and clinics that placed advance orders.”

A 50-year-old patient surnamed Kim, who visited an internal medicine clinic in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the day to obtain a prescription for Effe, said, “Effe is a domestic product, and the price for the initial dose is low, so I wanted to give it a try.” Kim had previously used Mounjaro for three months and lost about 8 kg, but stopped the treatment due to the financial burden when the medication cost exceeded KRW 1 million. After that, appetite returned and body weight increased somewhat, leading to interest in the relatively cheaper Effe.

Endocrinologist Yoon Geon-ho, met at the hospital, said that inquiries from patients seeking Effe had continued one after another since that morning. Yoon said, “I prescribe medication tailored to patients, taking into account muscle mass, body fat, and comorbidities,” and added, “In particular, Effe has the characteristic that its effect appears gradually and lasts for a long time, so it is expected to help patients who have lost weight with existing obesity drugs maintain their weight.”

Starting with Effe, competition in obesity drug development among domestic pharmaceutical and biotech companies is also continuing. JW Pharmaceutical and HK inno.N are pursuing or conducting domestic Phase 3 clinical trials of candidate substances introduced from China. Ildong Pharmaceutical is developing an oral drug, while Daewoong Pharmaceutical is developing a once-monthly injectable. Samsung Bioepis, together with domestic biotech company G2GBIO, is developing a long-acting obesity treatment. Celltrion is researching a new drug designed to act simultaneously on multiple functions involved in weight control. However, most of these are still in the development stage, and they must demonstrate efficacy and safety in order to compete with existing obesity drugs.

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