"Even with the cost of a round-trip ticket, it's cheaper"... Japan's 'Mounjaro mecca' draws South Koreans

[Financial News] The number of South Koreans traveling to Japan to obtain the obesity treatment drug Mounjaro has recently surged.
According to reports by TV Asahi Corporation and Sankei Shimbun on the 12th, Mounjaro costs less than half as much in Japan as it does in South Korea. Combined with the weak yen, this has led to a flood of posts on South Korean social media introducing Japanese clinics where Mounjaro can be obtained cheaply and easily as "meccas."
A woman in her 30s living in Seoul told TV Asahi Corporation, "I learned that there was a hospital in a regional Japanese city that prescribed Mounjaro, so I looked into it and found that it was the cheapest in all of Japan." She added, "There was no one around my age at the Japanese hospital, but I saw several middle-aged women receiving prescriptions together and leaving."
Another Seoul-based office worker in his 30s visited Fukuoka with a friend on a day trip last August. He bought a four-month supply of Mounjaro there for 850,000 won. "Even the cheapest price in Seoul is more than 1.7 million won," he told Sankei Shimbun. "Even after factoring in the approximately 350,000 won cost of a round-trip ticket, I was able to cut the expense substantially."
As more people travel to Japan to purchase Mounjaro, concerns are also emerging about the potential side effects. Hiroaki Mamiya, an associate professor at the College of Pharmacy at Ritsumeikan University, said, "Basically, medication should be used while consulting the prescribing doctor and adjusting the dosage." He added, "However, when people purchase the drug across the border and bring it back as is, follow-up care is temporarily interrupted. That could become a risk factor if side effects occur."
Stricter customs inspections could also disrupt travel between South Korea and Japan. In principle, bringing Mounjaro into South Korea from overseas is restricted. According to the Korea Customs Service and other sources, a total of 4,155 cases of illegal imports of obesity treatment drugs, including Mounjaro and Wegovy, were detected in the first half of this year. That figure is 3.5 times higher than the 1,189 cases recorded throughout last year.
Sankei Shimbun noted, "Cases of people bringing the drugs back without completing regular customs procedures are widespread." It added, "Customs inspections may be tightened in the future, potentially hindering travel between South Korea and Japan for diabetes patients."
[email protected] Hong Chae-wan Reporter