Mounjaro vs Ozempic in the Philippines, 2026: Price and Results

Mounjaro is Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide. Ozempic is Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide. Both are once-weekly subcutaneous pens and both are prescription-only in the Philippines. Beyond that they are not the same kind of drug: tirzepatide activates two receptors and semaglutide activates one.

On efficacy, SURMOUNT-5, the only head to head trial, reported 20.2% mean weight loss for tirzepatide against 13.7% for semaglutide over 72 weeks in adults with obesity without type 2 diabetes. On price the gap runs the other way: on 23 September 2026 Watsons Philippines listed the 15 mg Mounjaro KwikPen at ₱29,900 against ₱9,280 for the 1 mg Ozempic pen.

Ozempic 1 mg, the top strength on the Philippine label, sits below the semaglutide doses used in the best-known weight-loss trials. The trial section below states which trial, which dose and which duration sits behind every figure.

Every peso figure below was read from the pharmacy’s own product page on 23 September 2026 and renders from the site’s GLP-1 price tracker. Philippine pharmacy pricing changes without notice and varies by branch.

Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist. GLP-1 is an incretin hormone the gut releases after eating, and a drug that mimics it slows gastric emptying, amplifies glucose-dependent insulin release and pushes on the satiety signal. That is one lever.

Tirzepatide pulls two. It is a dual agonist at both the GLP-1 receptor and the GIP receptor, GIP being the other major incretin. It is not a stronger version of the same drug. It is a second mechanism running alongside the first, and in SURMOUNT-5 that combination produced more weight loss than semaglutide alone.

The side effect profiles look similar on paper and for the same reason. Both drugs slow gastric emptying and both push on satiety signalling, so both produce nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, most often while the dose is being escalated.

That difference in mechanism matters practically in two ways. Dose numbers do not translate between them, so 5 mg of tirzepatide is not comparable to 5 mg of anything Novo Nordisk makes. And because the mechanisms overlap only partly, response to one does not fully predict response to the other, which is why switching is a clinical conversation rather than an arithmetic one.

Efficacy figures for these drugs get quoted without their durations constantly, which makes them useless. Every number below carries the trial, the arm and the length of time it took.

SURMOUNT-1, a phase 3 trial, randomised 2,539 adults with obesity, or overweight with a weight-related complication, without diabetes. The figures above are its treatment-regimen estimand, which counts everyone regardless of whether they stopped. STEP 1, a phase 3 trial, randomised 1,961 adults without diabetes over 68 weeks.

The same trials reported the side effects. In SURMOUNT-1, 4.3%, 7.1% and 6.2% of the 5, 10 and 15 mg arms stopped treatment because of adverse events, against 2.6% on placebo. In STEP 2, gastrointestinal adverse events were reported in 57.5% of the 1.0 mg arm and 63.5% of the 2.4 mg arm, against 34.3% on placebo.

SURMOUNT-5 is the trial that settles the efficacy question because it is the only one that ran the two molecules against each other. It randomised 751 adults with obesity but without type 2 diabetes for 72 weeks, at maximum tolerated doses of each drug, and tirzepatide produced the larger mean weight loss.

Everything in this table was read from the pharmacy’s own product page on 23 September 2026. Confirm at the counter before relying on any figure here.

Each cell runs from the lowest to the highest strength that pharmacy lists; an empty cell means it publishes no price for that medicine. Every strength is on the Mounjaro price and Ozempic price pages. Mercury Drug publishes no prices online.

Mounjaro pricing is not linear. At Watsons Philippines on 23 September 2026, the 15 mg pen cost about 2.2 times the 5 mg pen for three times the drug, and the 12.5 mg and 15 mg pens shared one price.

None of these figures includes what it costs to get the prescription: a consultation and any bloodwork sit on top of the pen price. The GLP-1 price tracker lists every verified pharmacy row with its date and source.

Both products are registered with FDA Philippines. The Mounjaro KwikPen carries registration numbers DR-XY49504, DR-XY49503, DR-XY49501, DR-XY49531, DR-XY49505 and DR-XY49502, and Ozempic carries BR-1346, BR-1328, BR-1327 and BR-1326. On 23 September 2026, Watsons Philippines listed the Mounjaro KwikPen at 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mg and Ozempic at 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg, and its product pages and Southstar Drug’s marked both medicines prescription required.

Availability is the weaker half of that picture. On 23 September 2026, Watsons’ Mounjaro KwikPen pages read “Available in Click & Collect”, meaning pay online and pick up in branch rather than have it delivered. On the Ozempic side, Manila Bulletin’s 13 June 2026 report is the clearest published account of the rationing: pharmacies limiting sales to two pens per dosage per month, pharmacists screening which customers to serve, patients travelling between branches, and one patient going a month without medication. Manila Bulletin reported on 13 June 2026 that Ozempic had earlier sold for around ₱6,200 to ₱6,300 before prices rose, and that a single Las Piñas branch quoted ₱11,368 for the 1 mg pen.

There is a second-order effect worth naming. The same Manila Bulletin report recorded patients switching toward tirzepatide specifically because Ozempic was unavailable. A switch made because a pharmacy shelf was empty is a different decision from a switch made because a prescriber recommended it, and only one of those belongs in a treatment plan.

When a registered channel rations, an unregistered one fills the gap. Under RA 9711 a drug must be registered with FDA Philippines before it is imported, sold or distributed, and the regulation hub covers the detail. A quote far below the pharmacy figures above is a warning sign rather than a bargain. The spotting guide is the counterfeit Ozempic filing.