Vision loss from popular medical drugs – scandal in the US
Thousands of patients have filed lawsuits against pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, alleging that weight loss and diabetes drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound) caused a rare eye disease NAION, leading to blindness. The plaintiffs claim the companies concealed the risk.
Pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are facing a wave of lawsuits over severe side effects of popular weight loss and diabetes drugs — Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. Thousands of patients allege that these medications led to complete vision loss due to a rare condition — non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), known as an "eye stroke." The plaintiffs accuse the manufacturers of deliberately concealing the risk of this pathology to maintain the commercial success of their products. At least four thousand lawsuits have been filed in the US, consolidated into class actions. Novo Nordisk has added official warnings about vision risks to drug labels in Europe, the UK, and Australia, but such markings are not yet present on packaging in the US. The manufacturers categorically deny the allegations, citing the safety of the drugs proven by decades of medical tests. Scientists are still studying the direct causal link between GLP-1 class drugs and NAION.