Ozempic Ileus Lawsuit Filed by Woman Left With Gastrointestinal Problems After Receiving Injections for 2 Years

An Alabama woman has filed a lawsuit against Novo Nordisk, claiming that the drug maker failed to adequately warn that side effects of Ozempic may cause her to experience ileus, a painful condition where the intestines become unable to properly move food through the digestive system.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Karen Linn in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Alabama on November 21, indicating that she developed ileus, gastroparesis, severe pain and other injuries after receiving Ozempic injections for two years, which caused her to incur significant medical expenses.

Novo Nordisk has aggressively marketed Ozempic (semaglutide) since it was first approved in December 2017, as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. However, the popularity of the drug has skyrocketed over the past few years, due to its weight loss benefits.

Given the widespread use of Ozempic for weight loss, the manufacturer introduced a version of the medication known as Wegovy, which is specifically approved as a diet drug. The medications are part of a popular new class of diabetes and weight loss treatments, known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which also includes Eli Lilly’s competing Mounjaro and Zepbound, as well as Victoza, Trulicity and other medications.

However, Linn now joins a growing number of consumers who are pursuing Ozempic lawsuits, Wegovy lawsuits and Mounjaro lawsuits, indicating that the medications carry a risk of serious gastrointestinal problems, which may lead to intestinal obstructions, blockages and complete stomach paralysis.

Linn indicates that she was prescribed Ozempic in March 2022, and took regular injections until March 2024, for the treatment of diabetes and for weight loss.

However, the lawsuit claims that Ozempic led to the development of gastroparesis, a form of stomach paralysis, as well as ileus, which occurs when the intestines lose their ability to contract properly. This results in an inability to move food through the digestive system, which can cause serious intestinal blockages.

According to allegations raised in the Ozempic ileus lawsuit, Linn claims that she has been left with food intolerance, nausea, emesis, heartburn, flatulence, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, jaundice and severe pain, which the manufacturer failed to adequately disclose as potential risks of their medication.

“The risk of ileus is common to the entire class of GLP-1RA drugs, a fact that should have put Defendants on notice of the need to warn patients and prescribing physicians of the risk of ileus associated with Ozempic,” her lawsuit states. “Defendants never warned Plaintiff of the risk of gastroparesis, or ileus, or the complications associated with these conditions, which are caused by the use of Ozempic as prescribed.”

Linn presents claims of negligent failure to warn, strict product liability failure to warn, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation. She seeks compensatory damages as well as punitive damages “for the wanton, willful, fraudulent, reckless acts of the Defendants, who demonstrated a complete disregard and reckless indifference for the safety and welfare of the general public and to Plaintiff”.

December 2024 Ozempic Lawsuit Update

Linn’s lawsuit will likely soon be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where all federal Ozempic and GLP-1 lawsuits have been centralized as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in the MDL, and has directed the parties to focus in the early stages of the litigation on “cross cutting” issues, which will impact a large number of claims. This includes discovery and pretrial motions regarding general causation evidence about the link between Ozempic and ileus, gastroparesis and other injuries, as well as questions about whether the claims are preempted by federal law and whether plaintiffs will be required to provide specific testing evidence to establish they suffered an injury.

Following the resolution of those issues, Judge Marston is expected to direct the parties to select representative GLP-1 lawsuits for early bellwether test trials, to help gauge how juries will respond to evidence and expert testimony likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

While the outcomes of such early test trials are not binding on other claims, they could help potentially facilitate an Ozempic settlement agreement that would avoid the need for each individual case to be set for trial in the future.