South Korea has approved its first home-grown GLP-1 medicine for weight loss. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Hanmi Pharmaceutical's efpeglenatide, sold as Eppe, on 7 October 2026. In a phase 3 trial of 448 Korean adults, people on the once-weekly injection lost 9.02% of their body weight on average at 40 weeks, against 0.89% on placebo, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
What happened
Eppe is approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity, or overweight, who do not have diabetes, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and more activity. It is the 45th new drug developed in Korea, and the first GLP-1 for obesity. The regulator assembled a 19-member review team for the file.
It is injected once a week, at any time of day and with or without food. The starting dose is 2 mg, rising through 4, 6 and 8 mg over 12 weeks to a 10 mg maintenance dose.
| Trial | Phase 3, 448 Korean adults, 64 weeks, weight measured at week 40 |
| Average participant | Age 43, weight 89 kg, BMI 32 |
| Weight loss at 40 weeks | 9.02% on efpeglenatide, 0.89% on placebo |
| Lost at least 5% | 75.1% against 13.5% |
| Diarrhoea | 17.6% |
| Nausea | 16.6% |
| Indigestion | 15.6% |
| Constipation | 14.6% |
| Vomiting | 11.6% |
Hanmi's own headline figure, reported by Financial News and Aju Business Daily, is a little higher: 9.75% against 0.95%, with 49% of people losing at least 10%. The two figures appear to come from different analyses of the same trial. We have not seen the label, so we cannot say which the regulator used.
Hanmi said it is preparing to supply the product as early as the end of October, at a price meant to ease the cost of long-term treatment. It is made at Hanmi's plant in Pyeongtaek.
What it does not tell us
- How it compares head to head. Korea JoongAng Daily set the result beside Wegovy's 14.9% at 68 weeks and Mounjaro's up to 20.9% at 72 weeks. Those are different trials, in different people, over different lengths of time. Eppe has not been tested directly against either.
- What happens after 40 weeks. The trial ran for 64 weeks, but the published weight figure is at week 40.
- Body composition. None of the reports say how much of the weight lost was fat and how much was muscle.
- Whether it will leave Korea. No filing with the FDA, the MHRA or India's CDSCO is mentioned in any report of the approval.
What it means for you
If you live in the US, UK or India, you cannot get Eppe, and nothing here changes your current treatment.
The wider point is the direction of the market. Eppe is pitched on gentler side effects, Korean-specific trial data and local manufacturing, not on beating Mounjaro. The same pattern is playing out with generic semaglutide in India and Canada. More options at lower cost is good news for access, even when the weight-loss number is smaller.
A smaller average loss is not automatically a worse result. A medicine you can tolerate, afford and keep taking can matter as much as the headline number. Our piece on nausea in the first days after a dose covers why gentler titration matters, and tirzepatide against semaglutide sets out what the bigger numbers cost in side effects.
What to do with this
On any GLP-1, slower loss gives you more room to keep muscle, as long as protein keeps up while appetite is low. Protecting muscle on a GLP-1 explains how.