Ozempic-Related Emergency Room Visits Are Often Caused by Gastrointestinal Issues: Study

Gastrointestinal problems from Ozempic and Wegovy are the cause of nearly 70% of all ER visits linked to the popular GLP-1 drugs, researchers have found.

A new study highlights the impact of gastrointestinal side effects from Ozempic and Wegovy, indicating that when users of the popular diabetes and weight loss drugs do end up in the emergency room, it is most often due to gastrointestinal problems commonly associated with the widely used medications.

Ozempic (semaglutide), developed by Novo Nordisk, is a type 2 diabetes medication that has gained widespread attention for its weight loss benefits. This off-label use as a diet aid prompted the manufacturer to develop and release a weight loss-specific version, which is marketed under the name Wegovy.

However, as the popularity of both drugs has surged, so too have reports of serious gastrointestinal complications, with many users reporting they developed conditions such as stomach paralysis (gastroparesis), ileus and intestinal blockages after using the medications.

In a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on April 8, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at emergency room admissions linked to Ozempic use from data collected by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance Project.

According to the data, there were an estimated 24,500 emergency department visits linked to Ozempic side effects from 2022 through 2023. The mean patient age was 51, and more than 73% involved women.

The findings indicate that 69.3% of ER Ozempic or Wegovy visits were due to gastrointestinal effects, 16.5% were linked to hypoglycemia, 9% were due to medication errors, and 5.5% could be attributed to allergic reactions. Of the gastrointestinal problems, the majority were linked to nausea and vomiting, which accounted for 57.6% of stomach issues, with 25.1% linked to abdominal pain and 12.2% linked to diarrhea.

However, the researchers concluded that gastrointestinal effects were the second-most likely side effect to require hospitalization at 15%. The leading cause of hospitalization was hypoglycemia, a form of low blood sugar.

Ozempic and Wegovy Lawsuits

As a result of many of these kinds of gastrointestinal issues, thousands of former users are currently pursuing Ozempic lawsuits and Wegovy lawsuits in federal courts nationwide. Each claim presents similar allegations that users suffered painful and debilitating stomach problems, which could have been avoided if the drug makers had provided adequate warnings to patients and the medical community.

The two medications are part of a popular class of similar medications, known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which also includes Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound, Victoza, Trulicity and others, which have also been subject of GLP-1 litigation.

All of the lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system have been centralized in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under U.S. District Judge Karen Marston as part of a GLP-1 lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL).

To help test how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be central throughout thousands of individual claims, Judge Marston is presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings to prepare a small group of cases for early trial dates. 

However, before scheduling the first bellwether trials, the judge has tasked the parties with addressing a number of “cross-cutting” issues, including whether claims are preempted by federal law, whether plaintiffs are required to present specific diagnostic testing evidence to substantiate their injuries, and whether there is sufficient general causation evidence linking Ozempic and the gastrointestinal injuries.

While the outcomes of these early test cases will not be binding on other claims, they will be closely watched and may help the parties negotiate GLP-1 settlements to resolve large numbers of lawsuits in the future.