Ozempic Bowel Obstruction Caused Severe, Permanent Injuries: Lawsuit

Side effects from Ozempic caused a blockage that prevented the plaintiff’s stomach from emptying food into the small intestine, lawsuit claims.

A Wisconsin woman’s lawsuit alleges that the makers of Ozempic failed to warn patients and doctors about the risks of stomach paralysis, bowel obstructions and other serious gastrointestinal complications linked to the diabetes and weight loss drug.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by Rose Orta in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on September 16, naming Novo Nordisk Inc., Ozempic’s manufacturer, as the defendant.

Ozempic (semaglutide) is approved to treat type 2 diabetes and belongs to a newer class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists. Since its approval in 2017, the drug’s weight loss benefits have led to the development of Wegovy, a version approved specifically to treat obesity.

Orta’s complaint joins a growing number of Ozempic lawsuits and other GLP-1 lawsuits filed in the wake of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Ozempic warning label update in 2023, which warned that the drug may increase the risk of gastroparesis and intestinal blockages. Subsequent studies have suggested these gastrointestinal risks may affect the entire class of GLP-1 medications.

According to the lawsuit, Orta was prescribed Ozempic in July of 2020, but had quit using it by August 2023.

After a CT scan, she was eventually diagnosed with stomach paralysis and small bowel obstruction, which occurs when a blockage prevents food from moving through the intestines. The blockage can cause fluid and food to build up in the stomach and gut.

The complaint indicates Orta has suffered permanent and severe injuries as a result.

“Defendants knew or should have known of the causal association between the use of GLP-1RAs and the risk of developing gastroparesis and its sequelae, including small bowel obstruction, but they ignored the causal association.”

– Orta v. Novo Nordisk, Inc.

Orta presents claims of negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, breach of warranty, strict product liability failure to warn and negligent failure to warn.

Ozempic Side Effects Lawsuits

The complaint will be consolidated in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under U.S. District Judge Karen Marston, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings as part of a GLP-1 MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

Judge Marston has directed the parties to focus in the early stages of the litigation on certain issues, including discovery and pretrial motions regarding general causation evidence over the link between Ozempic and gastric obstructions, gastroparesis and other injuries, as well as questions about whether the claims are preempted by federal law.

Once those issues are resolved, the judge 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 the 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 their originating districts for costly individual trials in the future.