Hanmi Pharmaceutical is a South Korean drugmaker built around long-acting peptide drugs, and obesity is now its main focus.
Its lead product is efpeglenatide, a weekly GLP-1 drug Hanmi licensed to Sanofi for diabetes in 2015 and got back in 2020. Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved it as Eppe on October 7, 2026 for weight management in adults without diabetes, making it Korea's first homegrown GLP-1 obesity drug, and prescriptions began October 29 at 129,800 won for the first four weeks, about half the starting price of Mounjaro there. Korean press reported about 9% to 10% average weight loss at 40 weeks in a 448-person Korean trial.
Hanmi is also selling and testing newer ideas. In August 2026 it licensed HM17321, a urocortin-2 peptide that works through a different receptor than GLP-1, to Genentech for $190 million upfront and up to $2.3 billion in milestones, keeping Korean rights. At ADA 2026 it presented HM500197, a peptide that blocks myostatin, meant to protect muscle during weight loss.
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Prescriptions of Hanmi Pharmaceutical's once-weekly efpeglenatide, sold as Eppe, began October 29, 2026 at select Korean clinics and hospitals, after a limited first shipment on October 22, the Herald Business reported. The first four weeks cost 129,800 won, against about 270,000 won for Mounjaro's lowest dose and about 210,000 won for Wegovy, rising to 299,200 won a month at the 10 mg maintenance dose. In Hanmi's 448-patient Korean Phase 3 trial, patients lost an average of 9.75% of body weight over 40 weeks.
South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Hanmi Pharmaceutical's efpeglenatide, sold as Eppe, on October 7, 2026 as a once-weekly injection for chronic weight management in adults without diabetes who have a BMI of 30 or higher, or 27 or higher with a weight-related condition; it is Korea's 45th domestically developed new drug. Korean press reported average weight loss at week 40 of the 448-person Korean Phase 3 trial of 9.02% versus 0.89% on placebo (JoongAng Daily) or 9.75% (Korea Biomedical Review), with nausea in 16.6% and vomiting in 11.6%. Hanmi licensed the drug to Sanofi for diabetes in 2015, regained the rights in 2020, and has not announced a price.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical presented HM500197 (LA-MSTN) at ADA 2026 (June 5-8, New Orleans) as the world's first peptide-based myostatin inhibitor, positioned as a muscle-preserving adjunct to GLP-1 weight-loss therapy. The molecule was designed on Hanmi's HARP (Hanmi AI-driven Research Platform) integrating AI and structural modeling. Hanmi paired the LA-MSTN unveiling with a second next-generation candidate, HM17321, in a broader eight-abstract slate spanning the company's obesity pipeline. The myostatin angle addresses a major shortcoming of the current GLP-1 class — 25-40% of weight loss coming from lean tissue rather than fat — which Stanford's Maharjan team flagged at ENDO 2026 with the 560-step daily activity drop and which underlies the broader bone-health and frailty concerns now being studied across the GLP-1 class.
While the ADA stage belonged to Lilly and Novo, Korea Biomedical Review covered the Korean biotechs that sidestepped the headline duel and pitched monthly GLP-1s and next-wave obesity technologies. Hanmi Pharmaceutical, D&D Pharmatech, and Onegene Biotechnology made the case for differentiated dosing intervals, novel-mechanism peptides, and Asia-Pacific market positioning. The pattern echoes Chinese entrants like Innovent (mazdutide), Hengrui (ribupatide, HRS-7535), and Sciwind, and reinforces a meeting-wide pattern: the obesity field is broadening into a global, multi-mechanism pipeline.