People who use the popular weight loss jabs Ozempic and Wegovy may be at increased risk of developing an eye condition that can cause blindness, according to a new study.
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in injections used to treat diabetes and are prescribed to help people lose weight.
People with diabetes who were prescribed semaglutide were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with a condition called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), the study found.
Meanwhile, overweight or obese people prescribed the drugs were more than seven times more likely to develop the condition than those taking other weight-loss medications.
NAION, which is rare, occurs when blood flow to the optic nerve is reduced or blocked.
People often experience sudden loss of vision in one eye, without any pain, and often notice the problem when they wake up.
There are currently no treatments for NAION and vision often does not improve.
The new study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology, was led by Joseph Rizzo, professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School in the United States.
He said the use of these drugs has “exploded,” but that in the future doctors should discuss the potential risk of NAION with their patients.
However, he noted that while the study identified an increased risk, “it is related to a disorder that is relatively rare.”
NAION is thought to affect 10 in every 100,000 people in the general population.
Professor Rizzo and his colleagues decided to investigate a possible link between semaglutide and NAION last summer after three of their patients (all taking semaglutide) were diagnosed with vision loss caused by NAION within a week.
To investigate possible links, researchers examined data from more than 16,000 patients at Mass Eye and Ear (a Harvard teaching hospital) treated over a six-year period.
They compared patients who had received prescriptions for semaglutide with those who took other diabetes or weight-loss medications.
Over three years, 8.9 percent of people taking semaglutide for diabetes had NAION compared with 1.8 percent of people taking other medications, the researchers found.
In people taking semaglutide for weight loss, 6.7% had NAION compared to 0.8% taking other medications.
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Professor Rizzo said more studies are needed “in a much larger and more diverse population.”
“Our findings should be considered significant but provisional,” he said.
Graham McGeown, honorary professor of physiology at Queen’s University Belfast, said the authors had acknowledged the study had limitations.
But he said: “This research suggests an association between semaglutide treatment and a sight-threatening form of optic neuropathy, but ideally this would be tested in larger studies.
“Given the rapid increase in the use of semaglutide and its possible approval for a variety of problems in addition to obesity and type 2 diabetes, this topic deserves further study, but the possible side effects of the drugs should always be weighed against the possible benefits “.
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy and Ozempic, said the study had limitations, adding: “Patient safety is a top priority for Novo Nordisk and we take all reports of adverse events arising from the use of our products very seriously. medicines.
“NAION is not listed as a known adverse drug reaction in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) for the marketed formulations of semaglutide (Ozempic and Rybelsus for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight management) according to the approved labels.”
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