Ten Britons dead after developing worrying side effects to popular fat jabs as medicines watchdog investigates why this is happening
Ten Britons have died after complaining of side effects from fat jabs, sparking an urgent probe into the safety of weight-loss drugs.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it was investigating after hundreds developed pancreatitis after using the jabs.
The MHRA is examining whether those affected have a genetic trait that is leaving them at a greater risk of side effects from the likes of Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic.
The medicines watchdog said it has received more than 560 reports of patients developing an inflamed pancreas after taking GLP-1 injections since they were first launched. Ten cases proved fatal.
These drugs are typically known as 'fat jabs' or 'skinny jabs' as they are frequently used for weight management, but many are primarily licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
The MHRA is now calling for users who are admitted to hospital with pancreatitis to report the side effect to authorities using the regulator's Yellow Card scheme. Healthcare workers can also submit a report on patients' behalf.
When a Yellow Card report is received, the MHRA will contact patients to ask if they would be willing to take part in the new Biobank study in collaboration with Genomics England.
This would involve sharing more information and sending a saliva sample to explore whether genetic make-up puts patients at a higher risk of acute pancreatitis on GLP-1 jabs.
Researchers hope this will ultimately enable doctors to use rapid genetic screening tests before prescribing drugs to make the process safer.
Side effects continue to be a significant burden on the NHS and studies have shown they account for roughly 6.5 per cent of all hospital admissions in the UK.
The main symptom of pancreatitis is severe pain in the stomach that radiates to the back and does not go away. Anyone who experiences this should seek immediate medical help.
Dr Alison Cave, MHRA's chief safety officer, said: 'Evidence shows that almost a third of side effects to medicines could be prevented with the introduction of genetic testing. It is predicted that adverse drug reactions could cost the NHS more than £2.2billion a year in hospital stays alone.
'Information from the Yellow Card Biobank will help us to better predict those most at risk of adverse reactions - enabling patients across the UK to receive the safest medicine for them, based on their genetic makeup.
'To help us help you, we're asking anyone who has been hospitalised with acute pancreatitis while taking a GLP-1 medicine to report this to us via our Yellow Card scheme.
'Even if you don't meet the criteria for this phase of the Biobank study, information about your reaction to a medication is always extremely valuable in helping to improve patient safety.'
Recent estimates suggest that about 1.5million patients in the UK are taking weight loss jabs, many of which are bought privately due to NHS rationing. Health officials have suggested that they can help to turn the tide on obesity, but have stressed they are not a silver bullet and do come with side effects.
Most side effects linked to the jabs are gastrointestinal including nausea, constipation and diarrhoea. However, the medical regulator recently warned that Mounjaro may make the oral contraceptive pill less effective in some patients.
The MHRA said it has been notified of 181 cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis linked to tirzepatide - the active ingredient in Mounjaro. Of these, five people died.
There have been 116 reported reactions of this kind linked to liraglutide, one of which was fatal, and 113 cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis linked to semaglutide - the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, with one death.
Some 101 reported reactions of this kind are linked to exenatide, with three deaths, and 52 reported reactions of this sort linked to dulaglutide and 11 reported reactions to lixisenatide.
There were no reported fatalities from pancreatitis linked to the last two drugs.
There have been further reactions and deaths linked to other side-effects following the use of GLP-1 medicines.
The MHRA stresses that it has not been established that the jabs caused the illnesses, but that the patients themselves have reported them as side effects.
Professor Matt Brown, chief scientific officer of Genomics England, said: 'GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy have been making headlines, but like all medicines there can be a risk of serious side effects.
'We believe there is real potential to minimise these with many adverse reactions having a genetic cause.
'This next step in our partnership with the MHRA will generate data and evidence for safer and more effective treatment through more personalised approaches to prescription, supporting a shift towards an increasingly prevention-focused healthcare system.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Equivalent of one child in every British classroom now born via IVF, data shows
The proportion of women giving birth after fertility treatment in the UK has increased by more than a third in a decade, with the equivalent of one child in every classroom now born as a result of IVF, figures show. One in 32 births in 2023 were the result of in vitro fertilisation, up 34% from one in 43 in 2013, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). Overall in 2023, 52,400 patients had more than 77,500 IVF cycles at licensed fertility clinics in the UK, while about 20,700 babies were born via the process, up from 8,700 in 2000, the fertility regulator said. The number of women freezing their eggs also increased sharply, with cycles up from 4,700 in 2022 to 6,900 in 2023. Egg freezing increased most among women in their 30s, but the number using their stored frozen eggs remained low, the report said. IVF births now make up a higher proportion of all UK births, increasing from 1.3% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2023. 'This means around one in 32 UK births in 2023 were via IVF – roughly one child in every classroom – compared to one in 43 in 2013,' the report said. For women aged 40-44, 11% of births were as a result of IVF, up from 4% in 2000, accounting for 0.5% of all births, HFEA said. About 820 babies were born as a result of donor insemination (DI) treatment in 2023. The report also reveals a reduction in the number of IVF treatments funded by the health service. The proportion of NHS-funded IVF cycles declined from 35% in 2019 to 27% in 2023 in the UK, decreasing most in England, the HFEA said. More than half (54%) of IVF cycles in Scotland were funded by the NHS in 2023, compared with 49% in Northern Ireland, 33% in Wales and 24% in England. The HFEA also raised concerns about racial disparities in IVF treatment. In recent years, Asian and black patients have had lower birthrates compared with white patients and those from mixed ethnic backgrounds, according to the report. Julia Chain, the chair of the HFEA, said: 'IVF is helping more people have babies including patients of different ages and family types. One in 32 of all UK births are from IVF … We are also seeing more single patients and female same-sex couples having IVF. These findings highlight the changing landscape of the UK fertility sector and how it could develop in the years to come. 'However, we are very concerned to see that black and Asian patients continue to have lower IVF birthrates compared to other patient groups, and our recent national patient survey found that Asian and black patients are less likely to report being satisfied with their fertility treatment.' The survey also found that of the 80% of fertility patients who spoke to a GP before starting treatment, most waited up to a year to start treatment but 16% waited more than two years. Recent data showed that gynaecology waiting lists were long, Chain said. Anyone with concerns about their fertility should speak to their GP, she added. 'We also encourage all primary care providers to ensure speedy referrals to specialist fertility services, if needed, to ensure the chances of success are as high as possible.' The fertility rate in England and Wales in 2023 was 1.44 children per woman, according to the Office for National Statistics – the lowest level on record.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
500 families in Oxford call for maternity unit to be investigated
Hours after giving birth, with her son rushed away to a high dependency unit, as she lay broken and bleeding, Morgan Joines overheard a midwife blaming her. Her son had been born with wet lung after an emergency and traumatic caesarean section. "I overheard [the midwife] tell a student nurse I was the reason my son was ill, because I was too lazy to push," she told Sky News. "I was broken. I genuinely believed for ages afterwards that I had failed my son. "I thought I was the reason he was ill." Her son was born at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, part of the Oxford University's Hospital Trust. Morgan is one of more than 500 families who say they have been harmed by maternity care at the Trust. On Monday, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced a . A taskforce, chaired by Mr Streeting and made up of experts and bereaved families, will first investigate up to ten of the most concerning maternity and neonatal units. And campaigners - calling themselves the Families Failed by OUH Maternity Services - are calling for Oxford to be on that initial list. The unit was rated "requires improvement" in its last inspection by the government's watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, in April 2023. The CQC flagged issues around maintaining patient dignity, and said medicines were not always safely stored and managed. The unit did not manage the control of infection consistently it said, and wards were not always kept clean. One mum told the campaign group she thought she was going to die after being left alone while in labour and denied pain relief. Another said she is reluctant to consider having another child and feels a "profound loss of trust in the NHS". Trust to meet campaign group Yvonne Christley, Chief Nursing Officer at OUH, said she apologised "for not being able to respond in detail about individual patient cases". "We regret any instance where we fail to provide the service that women and their families should expect. When this happens, we make every effort to review individual cases to understand what went wrong and how we can improve." She said the trust "make every effort" to keep women and families informed of what action it has taken, and said it is committed to maintaining an open dialogue with community groups. "The Trust has agreed to meet with the campaign group and is eager to collaborate with them to implement the necessary changes and restore confidence in our services. These meetings are currently being scheduled." Caesarean sections account for approximately 40% of all births at OUH. A 'degrading strip wash' A few hours after Morgan's son had been whisked away to another part of the hospital, a nurse tried to force her to take oramorph, a high strength painkiller, she said. When she declined to take the drug, having previously had a bad reaction, she said staff "claimed I was being difficult". "[They said] to just take the meds and get it over and done with." When Morgan was unable to get out of bed, she says the same nurse then gave her a "degrading" strip wash, without her consent. The unit, she said, felt like it was against C-sections. "Even though it was recommended by doctors that I had caesarean, it was medically necessary, I felt I should have done more to help him," Morgan said. Waiting eight hours for a C-section When Kate* was 38 weeks pregnant with her third IVF baby, she was induced. The doctors had tried to burst her waters, but realised her daughter was breech when the midwife felt her feet near the bottom of the birth canal, telling her: "I'm glad those didn't break, I think I just felt a foot." At 11pm Kate reluctantly agreed to a C-section, but was told it was "safer to wait until the light of day" to go down to theatre. She was sent away to an observation area experiencing intense contractions for more than six hours. In those hours, she said she was abandoned without pain relief and was bleeding. "I felt so alone in the dead of night. My husband had been sent home, and I just wanted someone to talk to, someone to help me. "I was in so much pain labouring but the midwife made me feel like a hypochondriac." She said the situation was escalating, she was becoming dehydrated, and her daughter's heartrate was climbing, yet no one intervened. A registrar who began his shift at 7am, examined her and rushed her immediately to theatre. At this point she was 9cm dilated and the registrar was "shouting at me, telling me not to push." Kate's daughter was her third IVF pregnancy, and she became emotional when she talked about what might have happened, had that registrar not examined her so quickly in the morning. "They gambled with her life," she said. "If my waters had broken and that registrar wasn't there, she would have started to come with her feet first. Both my boys had shot out, so I could be talking now as a mum who lost her child. "It didn't need to even get to that point. After she had given birth, she was left "in a pool of my own blood, just covered in blood" and had to pull herself out of bed to clean up. She said she joined the campaign in the hopes women will be listened to in the future and not have to endure what she did. 'I can't get my baby out' Annika Weldon had three miscarriages before giving birth to her son. "I remember lying on the ward, screaming in pain and none of the other ladies around me were screaming like I was," she said. "It didn't feel right, obviously when you go into labour you expect you are going to be in pain, but I just knew there was something not right." The midwife who checked her when she was in active labour could not tell her if she was 1cm or 10cm dilated, she said. "We spent 45 minutes trying to get my baby out but this midwife that I was with was just so uncaring, she didn't really explain what I should be doing." She had said early in the pregnancy she told doctors she wanted a C-section and "was told I couldn't have one". "I kind of accepted that unless it was an emergency situation, I wouldn't be able to have one but then in that moment I was like, I don't know what else I can do here. I feel completely exhausted; I can't get my baby out. "I was just so tired and exhausted." Her son was born not breathing and she was haemorrhaging blood. She was taken to emergency surgery and the last thing she remembers before waking up in the ward is throwing up in her hair. 2:54 She wasn't told until much later the extent of her blood loss (2.5L) when she was struggling to pick up her own baby: "When I asked for help, I was made to feel like an inconvenience." 'OUH is particularly bad' For Kim Thomas, co-founder of Families Failed by OUH Maternity Services and CEO of the Birth Trauma Association, these stories are nothing new. But Oxford University Hospitals Trust is "particularly bad", she says. "They seem to have this incredibly arrogant attitude. They won't take criticism. "Women who complain are routinely dismissed. There's a failure to learn from mistakes." She says OUH also has "poor postnatal care": "Dirty wards, blood on the floor, women left in their own blood, women not helped." Yvonne Christley, from OUH, said: "We are never complacent and welcome all feedback, whether positive or negative, as we learn from both." A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Too many families have been devastated by serious failings in NHS maternity and neonatal care. "They deserve swift answers, and urgent action is essential to prevent future tragedies." They said the government was "immensely grateful" to families for sharing their experiences. "[We] will work closely with families on this journey to help ensure no parent or baby is ever let down again." The Oxford campaign group is growing daily, with more like Kate, Morgan and Annika joining the ranks of those calling for change. And each day that passes without answers is a reminder of the trauma they endured. "It still hurts to look back on. It's taken a while for me to stop blaming myself, but it doesn't get easier," Morgan said.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Weight loss and diabetes jabs linked to potentially fatal side effect
Weight loss and diabetes jabs taken by more than a million people in the UK have been linked to a potential serious side effect, with some deaths, according to data from the UK medicines regulator. New figures from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) show the group of drugs that includes Mounjaro, Wegovy, and Ozempic may be associated with inflammation of the pancreas. According to the MHRA, there have been 181 reported cases of acute or chronic pancreatitis linked to Mounjaro, with five deaths. Wegovy and Ozempic have been linked with 113 reports of pancreatitis and one death. Other, less widely used versions of so-called GLP-1 drugs have also been linked to cases and deaths. There is no evidence that the drugs directly caused the deaths. And the evidence isn't strong enough for the MHRA to restrict access. 1:31 That's because pancreatitis also occurs in people who aren't taking the GLP-1 drugs, with about 560 cases for every one million people in the general population. Gallstones and alcohol are the biggest causes. But the MHRA and Genomics England are launching a new study to see whether some people have genes that put them at higher risk of developing pancreatitis if they take GLP-1 drugs. People reported through the MHRA's 'yellow card' alert system to have pancreatitis while using the jabs will be asked to provide a saliva sample and their genes tested. Professor Matt Brown, chief scientific officer of Genomics England, said: "GLP-1 medicines like Ozempic and Wegovy have been making headlines, but like all medicines, there can be a risk of serious side effects. "We believe there is real potential to minimise these, with many adverse reactions having a genetic cause. "This next step in our partnership with the MHRA will generate data and evidence for safer and more effective treatment through more personalised approaches to prescription." The main symptoms of pancreatitis are severe pain in the centre of the tummy area, fever and nausea. Acute cases are treated in hospital with fluids and oxygen, and generally make a recovery within a few days. But there can be complications, and around 5% of acute cases are fatal. With all medicines, there is a balance of risk and benefit. For people with type 2 diabetes or obesity, there are clear benefits to using the jabs. They lower blood sugar levels, lead to rapid weight loss and reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease by a fifth. But for people who are a bit overweight and have sourced the jabs privately to lose a few pounds ahead of their summer holiday, the health benefits are far less clear. This is a wake-up call for them. These are powerful medications with effects not just on appetite, but on lots of body organs, including the brain. And pancreatitis is just one of many possible side effects. Lilly, the UK manufacturer of Mounjaro, has said patient safety is its "top priority". The drug's patient information leaflet "warns that inflamed pancreas (acute pancreatitis) is an uncommon side effect (which may affect up to 1 in 100 people)," the statement continued. Lily "also advises patients to talk to their doctor or other healthcare professional before using Mounjaro if they have ever had pancreatitis," it added.
