Lawsuits Over Ozempic Vision Loss and Gastrointestinal Injuries Will Be Separately Managed in NJ State Court

Despite ruling to keep cases separate, New Jersey Supreme Court assigned both multicounty litigations (MCLs) to the same judge in Bergen County.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that lawsuits over Ozempic and Wegovy vision side effects will remain separate from the pending litigation involving stomach paralysis and other gastrointestinal side effects linked to the widely used diabetes and weight loss treatments.

Novo Nordisk currently faces thousands of Ozempic lawsuits and Wegovy lawsuits filed in state and federal courts nationwide. Most of the litigation is focused on allegations that the drugs, which are part of a popular class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which also include Eli Lilly medications like Mounjaro and Zepbound, can cause various gastrointestinal problems. However, a growing number of claims are also being filed over a rare form of vision loss associated specifically with Ozempic and Wegovy.

Ozempic, Wegovy Vision Problems

Ozempic (semaglutide) was first introduced to the market in 2017 as a type 2 diabetes treatment, but was later found to carry significant weight loss benefits. As Ozempic sales began to skyrocket for this off-label use, Novo Nordisk developed and released a weight-loss specific form of the drug, known as Wegovy. 

While the drugs have been wildly popular, they have also been linked to various health concerns, such as stomach paralysis and intestinal obstruction, leading to nearly 2,000 GLP-1 lawsuits being filed by former users throughout the U.S. However, concerns have extended beyond gastrointestinal complications.

Last year, a study by Harvard researchers linked Ozempic and Wegovy side effects to a seven-fold increased risk of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which can result in sudden vision changes, blurred sight, blindness or other symptoms. European regulators appeared to confirm those risks in June, announcing that they also found a link between Ozempic and Wegovy and NAION, recommending new warnings be added to the drugs’ labels.

As a result, Novo Nordisk is facing additional Ozempic NAION lawsuits from former users who claim they suffered vision loss due to the drug maker’s failure to adequately warn patients and the medical community about the risk of potential vision problems, with claims not only brought in the federal court system, but also in the state courts of New Jersey, where the drug maker’s U.S. headquarters are located.

In June, a group of 21 plaintiffs involved in Ozempic or Wegovy NAION lawsuits pending in New Jersey state courts asked the Administrative Office of the Courts in that state to create a multicounty litigation (MCL), which would place all of the state’s Ozempic NAION lawsuits under one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. 

An MCL is New Jersey’s version of a consolidated mass tort proceeding, designed to streamline discovery and avoid inconsistent rulings as large numbers of similar cases move forward.

Noting that there were already 25 cases filed in New Jersey courts involving GLP-1 gastrointestinal injuries, plaintiffs asked for the NAION cases to be consolidated separately from those claims.

On November 10, in a Notice to the Bar (PDF), the state’s Supreme Court agreed with plaintiffs, consolidating the NAION claims in a separate MCL in Bergen County under Superior Court Judge Gregg A. Padovano. The court also assigned Judge Padovano to the stomach paralysis claims filed in that state’s court.

Ozempic and GLP-1 Gastrointestinal Lawsuits

In federal court, all GLP-1 lawsuits have been centralized into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where U.S. District Judge Karen Marston is overseeing pretrial proceedings, coordinated discovery, and plans to prepare a group of representative claims to serve as early test “bellwether” trials.

These trials will allow both sides and the court to see how juries might respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. However, before scheduling those bellwether trials, Judge Marston required the parties to address certain issues that would have widespread implications on the litigation, including what kind of testing was needed to confirm plaintiffs’ injuries, whether they can prove to a jury that the GLP-1 medications caused their injuries using sound science, and whether the claims are preempted by federal law.

In August, Judge Marston ruled on the requirements for diagnostic testing, leaving questions over general causation and preemption laws as yet unaddressed.

Following the resolution of the last two issues, Judge Marston is expected to direct the parties to select several representative Ozempic lawsuits for early bellwether test trials, which will help the parties gauge how juries are likely to respond to evidence and testimony that would be presented throughout the litigation.

While the outcomes of these bellwether trials are not binding on other claims, they could help the parties reach an Ozempic settlement agreement that would avoid the need for each individual case to be sent back to its originating district for costly individual trials in the future.

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