#asia 2025-09-07

follow up singapore was reported in here at around 400 to 600 singapore dollars a month a year or so ago, prescription only

japanese insurance covered the diabetes indication and not the weight one as far as anyone here could establish a year ago

does a closer supplier actually mean fewer customs steps

the carrier matters more than the distance, and that is the thing this channel took two years to agree on, not advice obviously

summer shipping matters here too. i avoid july and august the way australian members avoid january

update from 10 months ago: availability in the region is broadly the same and the prices i track are slightly higher

getting seen in korea was faster than any route a uk member described at the time we were both describing it

korea has a clinic culture where this is straightforward to obtain, and members reported that as both a convenience and a concern

japan being expensive despite the approval is the pattern. approval sets the licence and the pricing system sets the price

nobody here can tell you what will clear customs where you are and that is enforced in this channel, take that with a pinch of salt

customs inside asia caught my parcel once in four years. that is my rate, not a regional statistic, happy to be corrected

someone told me India already has generic versions of this. is that true

for liraglutide, broadly yes. several domestic manufacturers launched generic liraglutide once the patent position allowed it

for semaglutide it is different and the whole country has been waiting on the patent clock

waiting for when

the widely reported expectation has been an Indian patent expiry around early 2026, and a lot of companies have said publicly they are ready

thank you for the hedge, genuinely. this topic attracts confident nonsense

and worth separating three things. patent expiry, regulatory approval of a generic, and actual availability at a pharmacy counter

those are three different dates and the gap between the first and the third can be a long time

why would approval take long if the drug is known

because a peptide is not a small molecule. demonstrating that your version is the same thing is much harder than for a tablet

that is the bit almost nobody outside the industry understands

what does liraglutide generic cost there now

much less than the branded imported price, and still not trivial for most households here. i would rather not quote a number that will be wrong in a month

sensible. the price story in India has moved fast enough that any figure in this log will be misleading by the time someone reads it

is liraglutide even worth it compared to the weekly ones

that sentence is the whole channel from where i am sitting

does the generic arrival change anything for the rest of Asia

possibly a lot, eventually, because Indian manufacturers export at scale. but export requires approval in the destination country

so a generic being sold in Chennai does not mean it can legally be sold in Singapore or Tokyo. different regulator, different file

and Japan in particular has no interest in speeding that up. the national price is already low here

so cheap generics dont automatically arrive everywhere

cheap generics arrive where a regulator has approved them and a company has decided the market is worth the paperwork. thats it

flagging the obvious. none of this is a route to buy anything, and the research-material side of the site is not a generic drug supply either

important distinction actually. research material and an approved generic are not the same category even when the molecule is spelt the same

not the same category. one has been assessed for human use and one has not

understood

one thing i will predict. when it does land here properly, the volume will be enormous and the global conversation about price will get very awkward

awkward for who

for everyone paying two hundred a month in a rich country for the same molecule

yes. thats going to be a difficult decade for a lot of pricing departments

coming back to the patent date — if it slips, does everything slip

the launches slip, the manufacturing does not. everyone has been building capacity for years regardless. that part is not speculative

capacity is the thing to watch, not the court dates. capacity is honest