Skip to content
This GLP
← Research
Formats

Japan's dispensing data: the dose mix moved and somebody counted

Japan publishes national dispensing quantities for every strength of tirzepatide. Higher doses went from 13.0% of the mix to 24.0% in ten months.

Dana Sullivan6 min read
Share of the dispensing mix, June 2024 to March 20252.5 mg40.6% in June27.1% in March7.5 mg and above13% in June24% in MarchKit units, not patients. The 2.5 mg quantity rose while its share fell.

The interesting thing here is not any of the numbers. It is that a country publishes them at all: every strength of one product, dispensed nationally, month by month, auditable by anybody. Nothing equivalent exists for the market this site covers, which is why counting what sellers choose to disclose is the best available substitute.

What the record shows

Across the fiscal year the primary outpatient total was 7,829,974.7 kit units, of which 6,748,743.5 — 86.2% — were dispensed outside medical institutions rather than within them. [1] Over the fully observable months, that share rose from 84.0% to 87.6%.

Monthly quantity rose from 392,354 to 1,027,955 kit units. The strength mix moved with it: 7.5 mg and above went from 50,902 kit units to 246,316, which is 24.0% of the mix against 13.0% at the start — the population-level version of the dose decision made one patient at a time.

The 2.5 mg figure went both ways

Its quantity rose, from 159,318 to 278,540 kit units. Its share of the mix fell, from 40.6% to 27.1%.

Both are true and they describe different things. More of the starting strength was dispensed in March than in June; it was a smaller slice of a much larger total. The 5 mg product accounted for 50.5% of the absolute increase and the higher strengths together for 30.7% — which is what growth in a titrating market looks like from the outside, and is the kind of distinction a fold-change quoted without its base erases.

Why this belongs on a disclosure site

Because the question this data answers for Japan — what dose is the market actually on — is one nobody can answer for the US telehealth market at all.

Sellers there publish a starting price and, mostly, nothing about what happens to it as the dose climbs. That silence is measurable in one direction only: this site can count who publishes a ladder, not what anybody dispenses. A national claims file makes the second visible, and the comparison worth drawing is between a market that can be audited and one that cannot — the same gap behind every unanswered question in the census.

Frequently asked

Does this show patients escalating their dose?
No. National dispensing data cannot separate new patients starting low from existing patients moving up, and the authors say the study is not an analysis of individual titration.
What happened to the lowest strength?
Its quantity rose from 159,318 to 278,540 kit units while its share of the mix fell from 40.6% to 27.1%. Both are true of the same period.
Does this apply to weight-loss buyers?
Not directly. In Japan the product is approved for type 2 diabetes, so this is a diabetes market's dispensing record.
Why does a US-focused site cover Japanese claims data?
Because it answers a question nobody can answer for the US telehealth market: what dose the market is actually on. Here, only what sellers choose to publish can be counted.

Sources

  1. [1] Omura T, et al. (2026). Outpatient Dispensing Patterns and Changes in Tirzepatide Strength Mix in Japan: A Study Using the National Open Claims Data Cureus. PMID 42535213

Where to get it

Best GLP-1 injections

Every injectable seller we can verify, with the price each one publishes and an honest read of what the trials measured.

Compare providers →

More in Formats