More than 900 Patients Say Ozempic and Similar Drugs Have Unexpectedly Injured Them.

In a powerful new lawsuit, more than 900 people claim that Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs have caused them stomach injuries, sometimes even after they stopped using them.

Like Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Reportedly, this is the first case of its kind to focus on GLP-1s, which are believed to mimic the gut feeling of fullness and carry a laundry list of unexpected benefits and side effects.

“If the risk is serious, you have to warn them, even if it’s rare,” Paul Pennock, one of the lawyers who brought the case, told Post-Gazette. “I think we will be able to prove that the warnings that were there did not give a clear explanation of what was going on.”

Earlier this summer, Pennock described a patient who he said repeatedly ended up in the hospital because of the severity of his drug-induced symptoms.

“His problems are so severe that he has been to the emergency room several times, including last week,” he said. CBS at that time. “In fact, he was thrown so hard that his teeth came out.”

Last week, Pennock’s group of 929 plaintiffs and the drug makers behind popular weight-loss injections like Ozempic and Mounjaro presented their side in what’s called “Science Day, ” which helps to inform the courts about complex cases like this one.

Attorney Jonathan Orent, who is also representing the plaintiffs, said that while it may take years for the case to go through the courts, he hopes the case “will be able to go to trial in the not-too-distant future.”

During this pre-trial process, drug makers Eli Lilly (which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound) and Novo Nordisk (which makes Ozempic and Wegovy) admitted that these drugs actually cause gastrointestinal problems, although there was serious disagreement about their severity and classification. side effects that may form the background of the experiment.

As Orent explained, most of the plaintiffs in this case suffered from gastroparesis, a long-term condition involving paralysis of the intestines that makes it difficult for their intestines to pass through their small intestines. .

Orent said: “I think it was a big victory today, to hear from the companies that no one is disputing that these drugs can cause harm that happened in more than 85 percent of this multi-county case. “

That is a somewhat optimistic summary; Drug manufacturers argue that there should be a difference between gastroparesis and delayed gastric emptying, which, as the name suggests, occurs when the process of emptying stomach contents into the small intestine is impaired. delay or delay.

Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably in the medical field, Orent consultant Sarah Ruane says that the defense has long focused on what to call these effects.

“There were different words thrown around today, but the practical reality of what our customers are going through, as far as hospitalisation, downtime, not being able to do day jobs and a day for their families, that’s true,” Ruane said Post-Gazette. “That happens.”

Speaking to the newspaper, Eli Lilly’s lawyer, Mark Premo-Hopkins, said the drug could cause a “temporary” delay in gastric emptying, but insisted it should not be associated with gastroparesis, which is not It is chronic and has no known cure.

“Our position is that it does not cause gastroparesis. Gastroparesis is not just a delay in abortion,” Premo-Hopkins said. “The clinical signs of gastroparesis are common. They are similar and indistinguishable from many, many other symptoms.”

Semantics aside, these pre-trial differences between the prosecution and the defense reflect the ongoing questions surrounding these drugs and their many dangers. Can these drugs cause permanent damage? And even if they do, will patients who want to get their valuable health benefits — or, let’s be honest, who want to lose weight for aesthetic reasons — be barred from taking them? ?

More on GLP-1s: The researchers say there is something fishy about all these studies showing major health benefits from drugs like Ozempic.