Ozempic, Wegovy linked to rare disease that causes blindness in one eye, study finds

This article was originally published in English

According to a new study, People taking the weight loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic may be at increased risk of blindness in one eye due to a rare eye disease.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmologylooked at the medical records of about 17,000 people over a six-year period.

It found that diabetic patients prescribed semaglutide – marketed as Wegovy and Ozempic – were about four times more likely to be diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION)a painless eye condition that cannot be treated or cured.

Furthermore, overweight or obese patients who were prescribed the drug were more than seven times more likely to have NAION than patients who did not take it.

NAION is the result of reduced blood flow to the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, causing sudden and permanent blindness in one eye. It is a very rare condition, affecting two to ten people in 100,000.

Disturbing results, according to researchers

“The use of these drugs has exploded in industrialized countries and they have provided very important benefits in many ways, but future discussions between a patient and their doctor should include NAION as a potential risk.”said in a press release Dr. Joseph Rizzo, one of the study’s authors and director of neuro-ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, where the research was conducted.

The study authors launched their investigation in the summer of 2023, after Joseph Rizzo and colleagues diagnosed NAION in three patients taking weight-loss drugs within a week.

Given the rarity of the disease, they decided to retroactively examine patient data, which allowed them to identify the link.

Further research is needed

The study has some important limitations. It looked at correlation, which means that Researchers don’t know if the drug causes blindnessand it involved a particularly large sample of patients with rare eye diseases, which could skew the results.

However, their analysis shows that patients had the highest risk of NAION within the first year after being prescribed semaglutide, suggesting that the condition may be drug-induced.

The researchers said that their results were “significant but temporary” and that they advocated for further examination of the link between semaglutide and vision loss.

“Since diabetes is a known risk factor for NAION, diabetic patients who can benefit from GLP-1 treatment may be at higher risk for this disease from the outset.”says Dr. Andrew Lee, clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a neuro-ophthalmologist at Houston Methodist Hospital in the United States.

“The type of study conducted here is useful for identifying potential links between GLP-1 treatment and NAION, but it is not the type of study that can demonstrate that the treatment caused NAION.”he adds.

Although the study is interesting, “further research is needed to verify the hypothesis”according to him.

Medicines with very different effects

Other research shows that obesity drugs may reduce the risk of cancerof heart attack and strokebut they have also been associated with stomach problems rare but serious.

The new findings are particularly relevant for people considering taking these drugs who have “other known optic nerve problems, such as glaucoma, or significant pre-existing visual loss due to other causes”says Joseph Rizzo.

Semaglutide has gained popularity since Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk launched Ozempic to treat diabetes in 2017 and marketed Wegovy as a weight management drug in 2021.

Demand has grown so much that the European Union is now facing a shortage of Ozempic, prompting theEuropean Medicines Agency (EMA) to urge doctors not to prescribe it only to “aesthetic purposes” and to warn against counterfeit medicines.

This article has been updated to include comments from an independent expert.