Our personal injury attorneys are reviewing potential Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy lawsuits for individuals injured after taking the drugs for weight loss. Ozempic®, Mounjaro®, and Wegovy® have been linked to severe injuries like Gastroparesis (stomach paralysis), cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), cholelithiasis (gallstones), and other gastrointestinal problems.
Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy for Weight Loss
Ozempic, developed and sold by Novo Nordisk A/S, is a drug created and approved as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes. Though the FDA approved Ozempic in 2017 to treat Type 2 diabetes, doctors began to prescribe it for weight loss after it was discovered that appetite suppression was a side effect.
Novo Nordisk then developed “Wegovy,” a higher-dose version of Ozempic, approved by the FDA to treat chronic obesity in June 2021.
Ozempic and Wegovy are now prescribed far more often for weight loss than to treat Type 2 diabetes, their FDA-approved purpose. The popularity of these drugs as a treatment for weight loss has resulted in a national shortage in the United States, leaving many people with diabetes who take the medication to treat their Type 2 diabetes unable to get it.
Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutides injected weekly into the stomach, arm, or thigh. Semaglutides have a similar chemical structure to GLP-1, which is a naturally occurring hormone that regulates the body’s sugar levels and decreases appetite.
Mounjaro (Tirzepatide) received FDA approval for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in May 2022 and is manufactured and sold by Eli Lilly and Company. Mounjaro is a weekly injection that controls blood sugar levels through the activation of GLP-1 and GIP hormone receptors.
Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy were found to be highly effective at helping with weight loss.
Injuries Linked to Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy
Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy were recently linked to severe gastrointestinal injuries, the most serious of which is stomach paralysis or Gastroparesis. Stomach paralysis is a condition affecting the stomach’s nerves and muscles that restricts the ability of the muscles in the stomach to move food through the stomach and into the small intestine. This results in food sitting in the stomach too long and the inability of the stomach to process that food.
Gastroparesis can lead to several long-term problems, such as severe vomiting and nausea, as well as life-threatening complications like dehydration, malnutrition, and bowel obstructions. In some cases, the build-up of food in the stomach due to Gastroparesis requires a procedure to suction the stomach contents out of the patient. The FDA has received several reports of intestinal obstruction.
Ozempic and Wegovy are now among the most prescribed drugs on the market. This has led to many newspaper articles discussing an alarming spike in emergency room visits for individuals experiencing serious complications from Ozempic and Wegovy, including chronic and severe vomiting and nausea.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists recently recommended that doctors warn patients taking Ozempic or Wegovy to stop taking the drug at least a week before any surgical procedure. This warning was issued after several instances of patients regurgitating or vomiting their food while under anesthesia which can lead to post-surgery pneumonia and other problems.
Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy have also been linked to gallbladder problems such as acute cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder) and cholelithiasis (gallstones). Cholecystitis is a painful and potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when bile becomes trapped in the gallbladder. If the inflammation cannot be treated with medicine, then surgical removal of the gallbladder may be necessary. Gallstones are hardened deposits of bile that can be painful, lodge in the bile duct, and cause a blockage. Gallstones often require surgery to remove the gallbladder.
Personal Injury Lawsuits
The primary legal claims in the Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy lawsuits are those often seen in other drug-based product liability lawsuits, such as strict liability failure to warn and design defect, negligent failure to warn, negligent design, breach of express and implied warranties, misrepresentations, concealment of material facts and violation of various state consumer protection laws.
The common theme underlying these legal claims is that the drug manufacturers knew of the injuries caused by Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy but failed to properly warn patients and doctors.
The defendants in the lawsuits are the manufacturers and distributors of Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, including Novo Nordisk A/S, a Danish pharmaceutical company, Novo Nordisk USA, its U.S. subsidiary, and Eli Lilly and Company.
If you or a loved one were prescribed Ozempic, Mounjaro, or Wegovy for weight loss and suffered stomach paralysis, cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), or cholelithiasis (gallstones), contact us today for a free case and medical record review.
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