Thirty-seven medical institutions suspected of misusing narcotic appetite suppressants have been referred for criminal investigation. Many were caught prescribing the drugs long-term to patients who did not meet obesity criteria or issuing doses far exceeding recommended amounts.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Friday that it inspected 50 medical institutions with the highest prescription volumes of narcotic appetite suppressants and referred 37 of them for investigation over suspected misuse. The inspection analyzed prescription data from the Narcotics Integrated Management System between November 2024 and October 2025.
Prescriptions lacking medical justification were identified. One doctor prescribed 2,548 tablets of appetite suppressants over roughly a year to a patient with a body mass index (BMI) of 23.9, while another issued 1,890 tablets without even recording the patient's BMI. Current safe-use guidelines recommend prescribing one tablet per day only for patients with a BMI of 30 or higher.
The ministry selected the institutions through expert review. Some cases involved suspected prescription forgery and were referred separately for investigation.
The overall scale of appetite suppressant prescriptions is on a downward trend. The number of patients receiving prescriptions fell to 1.07 million in 2025 from 1.26 million in 2021. Still, stricter management is needed given that these are medical narcotics with a high risk of addiction, officials said.
The ministry plans to make active use of the "pre-prescription medication history verification system," which took effect in December last year, to curb doctor shopping. Medical professionals can check a patient's medication history for the past year through prescription software.
"Appetite suppressants carry a high risk of misuse and dependence, so appropriate use by both medical professionals and patients is critical," Minister of Food and Drug Safety Oh Yu-kyoung said. "We will continue managing prescriptions and enforcement to restore order in distribution."
