Prescribed “off label” for weight loss to obese adults, popular weight loss drugs have been associated with stomach paralysis, sometimes so severe that intestinal obstructions required hospitalization and surgery.
Santa Clara, CAA drugmaker’s dream is a patient continuing treatment and forever refilling prescriptions--and that spells profit. Such is the case with the weight loss drugs because discontinuing them leads to regaining lost weight. Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy are star performers, but a drugmaker’s nightmare is the serious side effects that leads to lawsuits, particularly when the manufacturers failed to disclose potential long-term impacts of serious injuries such as gastroparesis.
Gastroparesis
Gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach, is a condition that affects how you digest your food. To further complicate matters, high blood sugar can lead to gastroparesis; Diabetes is the most common known cause of gastroparesis and Ozempic is a treatment for diabetes. According to the CDC, gastroparesis affects how fast the body absorbs food. Normally, your stomach muscles tighten to move food through your digestive tract, but if you have gastroparesis, nerve damage from high blood sugar can cause those muscles to slow down or not work at all. Your stomach doesn’t empty properly, and your food may take a long time to leave your stomach. Gastroparesis can be serious because it also affects how the body absorbs nutrients, which can lead to malnutrition if left untreated. Another symptom of gastroparesis is frequent vomiting, which can dehydration, or extreme thirst.
Warnings
Last July, the American Society of Anesthesiologists issued a warning about using Ozempic and Wegovy before surgery: the lack of gastric emptying linked to the drugs could put patients at risk of vomiting and aspiration while under the effects of anesthesia. Similar side effects are also linked to Mounjaro. And last September, the FDA issued new label changes for Ozempic, stating that it can increase the risk of intestinal blockages and a condition ileus, which can cause abdominal cramps, bloating, nausea, vomiting, constipation, difficulty passing gas and difficulty eating.
Weight Loss Drug Lawsuits
Ozempic (semaglutide), Wegovy, Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and the new kid on the block, Zepbound, are all are similar in that they have been prescribed “off label” for weight loss to obese adults but the three former drugs have been associated with stomach paralysis, sometimes so severe that intestinal obstructions required hospitalization and surgery. But withdrawing tirzepatide and semaglutide led to substantial regain of lost weight – it would seem that the risks outweigh the benefits for some people, and as more people are prescribed these drugs for weight loss and not diabetes, a growing number of consumers have experienced severe and debilitating gastroparesis. Add to these symptoms the knowledge that drug manufacturers failed to disclose the potential long-term impacts of this condition, and that the consumer could have avoided permanent injuries if such side effects had been disclosed, and an increasing number of former users are now filing lawsuits against Ozempic/Wegovy and Mounjaro manufacturers.
According to Forbes, as of December 2023, legal action against Ozempic (and against Wegovy and Rybelsus, the other brand names for semaglutide) is in its infancy with only some individual lawsuits filed and no multidistrict lawsuits or class action lawsuits—yet. In British Columbia, lawyers have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Novo Nordisk with the Supreme Court of British Columbia. If a judge authorizes this, it will likely be the first class action Ozempic lawsuit in the world. The proposal was filed just one month after the FDA added label changes to Ozempic. Sometimes it takes attorneys to facilitate change…
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