Healthy Returns: Ozempic, Wegovy linked to rare cases of serious eye condition
Novo Nordisk's blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic are once again being linked to unintended side effects.
The weekly injections may, in very rare cases, cause a serious eye condition that can lead to vision loss, the European Medicines Agency's safety committee said Friday. It's the first time a regulator has confirmed the side effect following previous studies in Type 2 diabetes patients linking Ozempic to the condition, known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).
The committee has asked Novo Nordisk to add the eye condition as a side effect of "very rare" frequency in the product information for drugs that contain semaglutide. That's the active ingredient in Wegovy, Ozempic and Novo Nordisk's diabetes pill Rybelsus.
It's the latest potential concern about popular GLP-1s such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which mimic gut hormones to regulate blood sugar and tamp down appetite. Demand for the drug class has soared despite hefty price tags and a handful of unpleasant side effects that are most commonly gastrointestinal, such as nausea and vomiting.
It likely won't be a big concern for the vast majority of patients: the eye condition may affect up to 1 in 10,000 people taking semaglutide for at least one year, according to the committee.
The committee said people with diabetes who are exposed to semaglutide are at a twofold increase in the risk of developing NAION compared with those not taking it.
The eye condition is the second-most common cause of blindness due to optic nerve damage, after glaucoma. It is characterized by vision loss due to decreased blood flow to the front part of the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain. The disease typically occurs without any pain and most commonly affects people ages 50 and above.
The committee said patients should stop treatment with semaglutide products if they experience the side effect. Since December, it has been reviewing the findings of two Danish studies linking Ozempic to the condition in diabetes patients.
In a statement, Novo Nordisk said it has concluded that the data "did not suggest a reasonable possibility of a causal relationship between semaglutide and NAION." The company said the benefits of semaglutide still outweigh its risks.
But the drugmaker said it will collaborate with the EMA to update the labels for semaglutide products.
A day before the committee's statement, GLP-1s faced scrutiny over another potential eye-related side effect.
A study, published Thursday in JAMA Ophthalmology and conducted by University of Toronto researchers, found that diabetes patients who use GLP-1 drugs were twice as likely to develop neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) compared to those who don't take the medications.
The study also found that the longer patients were treated with these medications, the greater their risk of developing nAMD.
nAMD, commonly known as "wet" AMD, is the less common but more aggressive form of age-related macular degeneration. It is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss among older adults in the U.S.
The researchers drew on health records from Ontario, Canada. They analyzed nearly 140,000 adults with Type 2 diabetes to investigate a possible link between GLP-1 use and wet AMD. In the vast majority of cases, patients received semaglutide.
Novo Nordisk said semaglutide's "efficacy and safety have been extensively demonstrated in people with obesity/overweight with robust evidence for improving health outcomes."
Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
The 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list is here, and a number of health tech startups including Transcarent, Abridge and Rad AI made the cut this year.
The Disruptor 50 designation is a ranked list of innovative private companies that are advancing breakthrough technology within their sector. Any private, independently owned startups that were founded after Jan. 1, 2010 were able to be nominated.
Nominated companies had to submit qualitative information, like descriptions of their core business model, which were assessed by a team of CNBC editorial staff. They also had to submit quantitative data, like sales and user numbers, which were evaluated by CNBC's Disruptor 50 Advisory Board and Disruptor 50 VC Advisory Board.
Here are the health tech companies that earned a spot this year:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the major players in AI took the top five spots on this year's list. Anduril, an autonomous defense company, earned the first spot, followed by OpenAI, Databricks, Anthropic and the design platform Canva.
Taken together, these five companies have a combined valuation of just under $500 billion, which is more than the combined total valuation of almost every past Disruptor 50 list of the last 12 years. A sign of the times, no doubt.
Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
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