Ozempic and Wegovy could be linked to rare eye disorder, study says

Revolutionary weight loss drug Wegovy and anti-diabetes medication Ozempic may be linked to a rare eye disorder, according to a new study published Wednesday.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital found that patients prescribed either Ozempic or Wegovy had an elevated risk of developing nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION.

Ozempic and Wegovy are both made of the same chemical compound, semaglutide, and produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. The drug made a significant splash last summer after being proven to lower the prevalence of heart attacks and strokes dramatically.

But anecdotal evidence of patients developing NAION after being prescribed semaglutide sparked interest in examining the connection.

NAION is a rare disorder that occurs when there is a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve, causing sudden vision loss without any pain.

There are approximately 6,000 new cases of NAION in the United States each year, or less than 1 in 10,000. It is the second leading cause of blindness in the U.S.

The study examined 194 patients on Ozempic for Type 2 diabetes and 316 patients on Wegovy for obesity. Of those, 17 Ozempic patients and 20 Wegovy patients developed NAION respectively.

Over a 36-month period, 8.9% of semaglutide patients developed NAION compared to only 1.8% of patients on different anti-diabetes medications.

The study authors noted that there is no causal connection between semaglutide and NAION, but they said the correlation warrants further study.

Novo Nordisk told the Washington Examiner that the study had a “high risk of selection bias” due in part to the small sample size.

“Semaglutide has also been studied in large real-world evidence studies and robust clinical development programs with a cumulative exposure including from post-marketing use of over 22 million patient years,” a company spokesperson said. “The totality of data provides reassurance of the safety profile of semaglutide.”

The pharmaceutical company also said the study did not take into account other risk factors for NAION, including smoking, duration of diabetes, and history of eye changes.

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The spokesperson also confirmed that semaglutide is being examined in a worldwide study on the long-term effects of the drug on diabetic retinopathy patients.

Approximately 1 in 8 Americans has tried Ozempic or a similar drug.