A grandma of 11 and a New Jersey man have joined the growing chorus of users of the wildly popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy who say they didn\u2019t just lose fat \u2014 they also lost their eyesight.<\/p>\n
New local lawsuits filed by the pair allege the manufacturer hid the \u201cdevastating\u201d risk, which left them with a permanent, life-changing loss of vision in both eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt pains me to think I won\u2019t be able to fully see my grandchildren\u2019s faces and fully experience the biggest moments of my loved ones\u2019 lives,\u2019\u2019 said plaintiff Cilette Mitchell, a 64-year-old grandmother and former vice president at a large commercial bank in California, to The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I known that Ozempic would take my vision, I would have never taken it.\u201d<\/p>\n
California grandmother Cilette Mitchell is one of two more patients suing Novo Nordisk, claiming that taking its blockbuster drugs Wegovy and Ozempic made her lose her vision. Cilette Mitchell<\/p>\n
Mitchell, 64, who has lost vision in both eyes, told The Post, \u201cIt pains me to think I won\u2019t be able to fully see my grandchildren\u2019s faces and fully experience the biggest moments of my loved ones\u2019 lives.\u201d Cilette Mitchell<\/p>\n
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is accused in the suits of being \u201cdeceptive and misleading about the true risks\u201d of the hit GLP-1 obesity drugs, with the legal documents citing multiple studies suggesting that the potential for a blindness-causing \u201ceye stroke\u201d doubles with their use.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits insist the manufacturer has a responsibility to warn doctors and users \u201cof the complications and devastating effects\u201d of the drugs \u2014 which are so popular that they raked in more than $25 billion in global sales last year.<\/p>\n
But Novo Nordisk has \u201cfailed\u201d to communicate the \u201cclinically relevant information\u201d that a risk of irreversible blindness exists, the suits allege.<\/p>\n
The two affected patients filed lawsuits against the drugmaker in New Jersey state court last week. The company\u2019s US headquarters are in Plainsboro, NJ.<\/p>\n
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk reported more than $25 billion in global sales last year off their hit semaglutide GLP-1 obesity drugs. Ole \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Both plaintiffs said in their suits that they began taking the weight loss drugs in 2023 and, in addition to losing some weight, noticed blurriness in their vision months after their first injection.<\/p>\n
Mitchell, a mother of four, said she started noticing \u201cdark, cloudy shadows\u201d in her right eye just three months into her regime, first with Wegovy, and then Ozempic.<\/p>\n
An ophthalmologist urged her to rush to the emergency room for an MRI, where she was diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) in her right eye, she said.<\/p>\n
Things got worse weeks later on Easter Sunday, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad I known that Ozempic would take my vision, I would have never taken it,\u201d said Mitchell, a mother of four, grandmother to 11 and former vice president and branch manager at a large commercial bank in California. Cilette Mitchell<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile playing with my grandchildren, the dark clouds started to creep in on my other eye,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next day, the doctor confirmed that I developed NAION in that eye as well, with the result being permanent vision loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell, who was near retirement, started taking classes at the San Diego Center for the Blind to see if she would be able to return to her job at the bank \u2014 where she could no longer see a computer screen.<\/p>\n
But vision and balance issues from NAION have halted working altogether, her suit states.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I need help doing daily activities and navigating life,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
The New Jersey patient, who declined to comment to The Post, claims in his suit that he was diagnosed with bilateral NAION about a month after he first had issues with his vision.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk told The Post that it \u201cis of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains unchanged.\u201d K KStock \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The man says in his suit that he \u201ccan no longer drive, can no longer read, and is completely dependent on his wife for day-to-day assistance.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
His neuro-ophthalmologist told him that his vision would never recover, the court document states.<\/p>\n
The drugmaker said in a statement to The Post that the users\u2019 vision condition, NAION, is \u201crare\u201d and \u201cnot an adverse drug reaction\u201d from its products.<\/p>\n
The manufacturer cited its own internal studies and research from the University of Southern Denmark in making the claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cNovo Nordisk is of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of [the alleged culprit ingredient] semaglutide remains unchanged,\u201d a company rep told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing my vision has changed every aspect of my life,\u201d said Mitchell, pictured here with three of her grandchildren. Cilette Mitchell<\/p>\n
But lawyer Craig Silverman, of the law firm Sullivan Papain Block Mcmanus Coffinas & Cannavo, said his two plaintiffs \u201cstrongly reject Novo Nordisk\u2019s dismissive attempt to minimize the serious risks associated with its blockbuster weight loss drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two lawsuits cite studies that claim NAION links to the drugs, including 2024 research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.<\/p>\n
The study found that users of the drugs were far more likely to develop NAION but also notes further research of the causation is needed.<\/p>\n
The suits note that the drugmaker\u2019s \u201cwarning labels are still devoid of any mention of NAION.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other former users of the weight loss drugs have also recently filed suits against the drugmaker claiming the GLP-1 medications possibly caused their NAION as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grandma of 11 and a New Jersey man have joined the growing chorus of users of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[31949,105,19905,4326,23526,370,13683,16,15,727,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-61962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-blind","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-lawsuits","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-ozempic","14":"tag-prescription-drugs","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-weight-loss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114424943950211791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}