Korea obesity drug survey shows Gen Z leading GLP 1 use

One in ten Korean adults used or was prescribed a GLP-1 obesity drug over the past year, according to a consumer study from KB Financial Group. The Korea obesity drug survey, part of the group's 2026 Korea Wellness Report released on Sunday 25 October, found the highest rates among the youngest adults it questioned. A sugar market analysis published by CZ app on 2 November used the figures as evidence that these peptide drugs are spreading beyond the United States. This story sets out what the numbers show and where they stop.

What the KB Financial Group report measured

The KB Financial Group report rests on a survey of 2,000 men and women aged 25 to 69, carried out in July and August, The Korea Times reported. Of those respondents, 10.3% said they had used or been prescribed a GLP-1 obesity drug in the previous year. The newspaper gave Wegovy, sold by Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro, sold by Eli Lilly, as examples. Both are peptide medicines that copy gut hormones involved in appetite and blood sugar control. The published summary does not split the result by product, so readers cannot tell how use divided between the two brands. It also gives no figure for how long people stayed on treatment, which matters as much as the headline share for doctors and payers.

Use differed by sex as well as by age. Men reported a higher rate than women, at 11.6% against 9%, yet women were more likely to know about the drugs, with awareness of 83.1% compared with 73% among men. Interest in the future was also wide. Asked whether they would use obesity drugs if their circumstances allowed, 33.9% of all respondents said yes. That share is more than three times the group that reported use or a prescription in the past year, which suggests that interest runs well ahead of current use. The table below brings together the main figures as the newspaper published them, grouped by age band and by sex, so readers abroad can compare them with data from their own markets.

Gen Z obesity drugs use runs far ahead of older adults

The sharpest split in the Korea obesity drug survey is between generations. Generation Z, born after 1995, reported a rate of 16.5%, more than five times the 2.9% recorded among baby boomers. Millennials followed at 14.2% and Generation X at 7.7%. Because the survey only covered adults from age 25, its Gen Z group is narrow, made up of people aged roughly 25 to 30 at the time of the fieldwork. The published summary does not explain why use is so much higher among them, and it does not say whether younger users received the drugs for obesity, for diabetes or for weight control at a lower body weight. CZ app's analyst took the Korean data as evidence that uptake can rise fast beyond the US, above all among the young.

Generation Z, born after 1995, reported a rate of 16.5%, more than five times the 2.9% recorded among baby boomers.

Reasons differed just as clearly. Among Gen Z respondents, 39.7% said they would use the drugs if circumstances allowed, and 48.2% of that group named appearance and body shape management as the main reason, according to The Korea Times. Baby boomers most often cited health improvement, at 55.3%. Worry was widespread, with 57.3% of all respondents saying they were concerned about misuse and obesity drug side effects. That mix of strong demand and stated caution is one regulators will recognise. Supply at home is also growing: a KoreaBIO count reviewed by this desk found six obesity drug candidates discovered in Korea, as set out in our report on the Asia Pacific obesity pipeline.

How the Korean figures compare with other markets

The Korean numbers reached a wider audience through CZ app, the analysis service of commodities group Czarnikow, which has been tracking how GLP-1 drugs may change demand for sugar. Its analysis, published on 2 November, placed the KB data next to a US consumer survey by EY-Parthenon. That study covered 14,883 US consumers, including 3,602 current or former users, and found weight management was the main reason for treatment for 54% of users. CZ app said users were cutting back on snacks, soft drinks and alcohol. The Korea obesity drug survey, as reported, did not ask about food or drink, so it offers no direct evidence on diet. CZ app used it instead to show how far uptake can spread, especially among younger adults.

Access is not widening everywhere, the same analysis noted. Belgium will not pay for Mounjaro used to treat obesity, having already refused to cover Wegovy for that use, though some type 2 diabetes patients keep conditional coverage. CZ app also cited J.P. Morgan, which puts combined sales of weight loss drugs in China, India and Brazil at USD 6.6 billion now and sees them reaching USD 22 billion by 2035. That is a bank forecast, not an outcome. It also measures something different from the Korean survey: J.P. Morgan put penetration below 0.1% in China and below 0.2% in India, against 4% to 5% in the United States, whereas KB counted anyone who used or was prescribed a drug at any point in a year.

What the survey leaves open for Korean doctors and drugmakers

The headline figure of the Korea obesity drug survey needs care. CZ app itself cautioned that the figure blends actual users with anyone handed a prescription, which means it does not measure how many adults are on a GLP-1 drug on a given day. A prescription that was never filled, or a short trial that stopped after a few weeks, would count the same as a year of steady treatment. The answers are also self reported. The published summary does not say how respondents obtained the drugs, whether through a doctor's prescription at a clinic or by other routes, and it does not describe how the sample was weighted. None of the reports cited here linked the figures to any change in prescribing rules.

The market the survey describes is already shifting. Fieldwork ended in August, before Hanmi Pharmaceutical's efpeglenatide pen reached selected Korean clinics on 29 October, a launch this desk covered in its report on how Hanmi Epe undercuts Mounjaro on starting price. Korea's drug regulator, the MFDS, has also widened the approved uses of tirzepatide, as reported in our story on the Mounjaro Korea approval for heart risk and children with type 2 diabetes. The questions to watch are whether a cheaper local option changes who takes these drugs, whether younger users stay on treatment, and whether KB repeats the question so that next year's figures can be compared directly.

Conclusion

The Korea obesity drug survey from KB Financial Group shows that GLP-1 obesity drugs have reached about one in ten Korean adults aged 25 to 69 in a single year, with Gen Z far ahead of older groups. It does not show how many people are on treatment now, which products they use or how they got them. For a market that is gaining local brands and new label uses, the next edition of the report will show whether this early, youth heavy uptake holds.