Ozempic MDL and Semaglutide Update

Philadelphia, PAFifty-five Ozempic and similar weight loss drug lawsuits have been centralized in Eastern Pennsylvania, with U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter at the helm of the MDL and scheduled to commence March 14 at the first status conference. The litigation claims that Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Trulicity cause gastroparesis and other serious gastrointestinal injuries, and the companies failed to warn patients about the risks associated with GLP-1 receptor agonist medications.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly requested that the cases move to alternative jurisdictions, such as North Carolina or California, but the judicial panel declined, mainly because, at least 13 out of 55 lawsuits are already situated in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, close to Novo Nordisk’s headquarters in New Jersey. Plaintiffs are happy with the move and that the panel said all defendants must be included in this MDL, reported Law360.

The case is: Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists (GLP-1 RAS) Products Liability Litigation, case number MDL-3094, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

More About Ozempic and Similar Drugs

Ozempic is a brand name for the drug semaglutide, which is in high demand as an effective anti-obesity drug. But for some consumers, it comes with potentially dangerous side effects such as gallbladder disease and gastroparesis or stomach paralysis. Like some other drugs used off-label (such as Champix, an anti-depressant that was found to help quit smoking) Ozempic was approved by the FDA to control the effects of diabetes. Not even a year after its release in 2017, researchers in the U.K. discovered it could also treat obesity. And on Ozempic’s heels, Wegovy was approved in 2021 for long-term weight management in adults who have at least one other weight-related condition. Also in 2021, The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) had received over 10,000 adverse event reports about Ozempic. (FAERS is an openly accessible pharmacovigilance database documenting adverse events, medication errors, and product quality complaints reported spontaneously by people of diverse occupations worldwide.)

These semaglutide drugs became so popular that supply couldn’t keep up with demand and by 2023 it was on the FDA’s drug shortages list. Naturally, this shortage paved the way for counterfeit semaglutide variants but not before the media started reporting on alleged Ozempic side effects. The first lawsuits were filed shortly after those reports became mainstream. (NBC News reported early February 2024 that Novo Nordisk had settled lawsuits against two Florida businesses that claimed to sell copycat versions of its popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.)

Recent Studies

A recent study published in Frontiers in Endocrinology found a “significant association” between the use of contemporary weight loss and diabetes medications, i.e., glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists such as Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, and the occurrence of psychiatric side effects. The researchers analyzed over 8,000 reports of psychiatric adverse events (AEs), including eating disorder, binge eating, self-induced vomiting and more.

Researchers also reported mind-boggling diabetes statistics: “Diabetes has been one of the fastest growing public health issues worldwide in recent decades. The year 2021 witnessed a staggering 529 million diagnosed cases of diabetes, with projections indicating a substantial increase to over 1.31 billion cases by the year 2050.”   

The Journal of the American Medical Association published studies in 2022 where researchers found the use of drugs like Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy are associated with an increased risk of gallbladder disease. These drugs all act as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) hormones. In a 2022 review of 76 studies on the effects of these GLP-1 RAs, the association with gallbladder diseases was confirmed.

Ozempic Lawsuits

Complaints against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been filed in 11 federal judicial districts across the U.S., accompanied by "tagalong" cases in 15 more.

According to Forbes in its March 2024 Ozempic Lawsuit update, lawsuits have been filed concerning the side effects of Ozempic related to the stomach and the muscles of the stomach lining and that the drug causes a dangerous condition called gastroparesis. Plaintiffs allege that Novo Nordisk concealed or downplayed these side effects, but there are other potential side effects that may lead to further legal action.

In public statements, Novo Nordisk stands by the safety of its products, including all semaglutide variants. The Danish drug maker also acknowledged that gastrointestinal side effects can occur with the use of its drug but downplayed their severity. Forbes posits that this likely represents the main defense that Novo Nordisk will make against Ozempic lawsuits and it will likely claim that users were warned of potential side effects before they started to take the drug.