Wegovy (ingredient name semaglutide), an obesity drug that can be administered only to adults, was found to have been prescribed to children under age 12.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) to Kim Nam-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, on the 13th, Wegovy was prescribed 69 times to those under age 12 from Oct. last year, when Wegovy entered Korea, through Aug. this year. Wegovy cannot be administered during pregnancy, but there were also 194 cases prescribed during pregnancy.
Wegovy, launched by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, is a glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 class obesity treatment. GLP-1 is a hormone secreted by the small intestine after meals. It promotes the secretion of insulin, which lowers blood sugar, and suppresses glucagon, which raises blood sugar. Wegovy mimics this and was developed as a diabetes treatment, then evolved into an obesity treatment after its weight-loss effect was confirmed. It reduces appetite in the brain and slows the rate at which food leaves the stomach to increase satiety.
Wegovy is a prescription-only medication. However, it is being prescribed in medical departments unrelated to obesity, raising concerns about whether diagnoses are being made properly. According to HIRA, Wegovy was also prescribed in psychiatry (2,453 cases), obstetrics and gynecology (2,247 cases), ophthalmology (864 cases), and dentistry (586 cases).
Indiscriminate prescribing can lead to abuse of obesity drugs and adverse reactions. After taking Wegovy, 151 people developed acute pancreatitis, and 19 of them visited the emergency room. Cholelithiasis occurred in 560 people, and 76 visited the emergency room. In addition, adverse reactions such as cholecystitis, acute kidney injury, and hypoglycemia occurred.