This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:11 p.m. on Sept. 7, 2026.
Eli Lilly and Company, which rose to the No. 1 pharmaceutical corporation by global market capitalization with the obesity drug Mounjaro, has put K-aesthetic medicine on its list of next growth candidates. As part of a strategy to expand its pipeline into dermatological science, it is understood to have actively considered investing in "K-skin boosters" recently, as the phrase "Mounjaro face" has even emerged. Mounjaro face is a neologism that negatively describes changes in appearance that occur when weight drops rapidly due to the use of Mounjaro.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 7th, Eli Lilly and Company, led by Lilly Ventures, has contacted major domestic aesthetic medicine corporations one after another from the first half of this year to recently. It is said to have cast a wide net, from listed companies that make skin boosters and startups developing new aesthetic medicine technologies to dermatology clinics that perform skin booster procedures.
Skin boosters are products injected into the skin to replenish moisture and improve elasticity, with "Rejuran" and "Juvelook" being representative examples. In May, during the Korean Society for Laser, Dermatology and Trichology meeting, Eli Lilly and Company, led by Lilly Ventures, was also known to have met with medical device specialist corporations such as Hugel(145020), CLASSYS(214150) and Medytox(086900).
Lilly Ventures is Eli Lilly and Company's corporate venture capital (VC) arm. It is regarded as the spearhead of Eli Lilly and Company's strategic expansion. Although its assets under management are not large at around $200 million, it is understood that when Lilly Ventures reviews or invests, the global business development (BD) department later steps in to pursue license-in (technology introduction) or even acquisitions.
In fact, for some domestic aesthetic medicine corporations, after Lilly Ventures' initial review, executives from Lilly Ventures and Eli Lilly and Company visited together and conducted a close examination of not only the skin regeneration mechanisms of key products and the status of research and development, but also the potential for large-scale production of major substances in the future.
Observers say Eli Lilly and Company has chosen K-aesthetic medicine as a means to broaden Mounjaro's utility. Because the effect of rapidly reducing body fat by suppressing appetite signals in the brain appears on the face at the same time, complaints have steadily emerged that while weight has decreased, the face looks even older.
In particular, as the term Mounjaro face has spread regarding the loss of facial volume after weight loss, it is said that the need to supplement facial elasticity has grown within Eli Lilly and Company. In fact, Eli Lilly and Company is understood to be pushing to expand into consumer dermatological science areas such as hair loss and skin care.
Korea is cited as the place that effectively pioneered the skin booster market. A representative case is PharmaResearch's Rejuran. Introduced in 2014 using polynucleotides (PN) extracted from salmon deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the raw material, Rejuran is regarded as the "original" that created the skin booster category that improves moisture replenishment and elasticity.
In addition, VAIM's Juvelook, which combines high-molecular polylactic acid (PLA) and hyaluronic acid to aid collagen production, and L&C BIO's fifth-generation skin booster "Re2O," which uses human acellular dermal matrix (hADM), have taken root in the market one after another, greatly boosting global recognition of "injection-type K-aesthetic medicine" procedures.
Alongside a concentration of aesthetic medicine technologies and products, Korea's unique market dynamism, which is accustomed to change, is also cited as a reason Eli Lilly and Company turned to K-aesthetic medicine. There are few places like Korea as a "test bed" to verify in the field the marketability of skin booster products linked to Mounjaro and consumer acceptance.
An industry official said, "It appears the key goes beyond solving Mounjaro face to securing new technology from a medical science perspective," adding, "They are keeping all options open for technologies that can differentiate on the pharmaceutical and medical device fronts and for assets with scalability in the dermatological science area."
However, some predict that rather than immediately acquiring a Korean aesthetic medicine corporation, Eli Lilly and Company is more likely to pursue joint development or minority-stake investments. From Eli Lilly and Company's perspective, which wants to expand into therapeutics through clinical trials, domestic aesthetic medicine corporations' skin boosters remain at the level of materials.
In fact, all major domestic skin booster products are classified as medical devices, not pharmaceuticals. That means they are devices that act on the human body physically or chemically, not chemical or biological substances used to treat or prevent disease. Strictly speaking, they remain at the level of tissue-repair biomaterials that induce tissue regeneration and volume restoration.
Eli Lilly and Company is said to want a skin elasticity improvement therapy that, with scientific backing, can be sold in parallel with Mounjaro, not just address surface phenomena by directly supplying moisture to the skin. Recently, it is known to have broadened the scope of K-aesthetic medicine investment reviews to the level of university laboratories.
An IB industry official said, "The review of investments in Korean K-aesthetic medicine is one strand of Eli Lilly and Company's all-out bets to sustain Mounjaro's success," adding, "Regarding hair loss, which is cited as a side effect of obesity drugs, it has already invested $40 million in the U.S. new drug development corporation Absci, which makes hair loss treatments."
Meanwhile, Eli Lilly and Company was tallied to have recognized about $2.8 billion (more than $3 per share) as acquired in-process research and development (IPR&D) expense from external technology and corporation acquisitions in the second quarter. The amount was expensed immediately under accounting as it bought gene therapy developers and others, a sharp increase from $154 million in the same period a year earlier.