The EMA has issued a warning about rare cases of serious eye damage, including retinal detachment, in users of Ozempic and Wegovy.
United States: The safety committee of the European Medicines Agency stated that rare cases of eye condition called retinal detachment might occur with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic drugs.
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Numerous earlier studies in people with type-2 diabetes connected the use of Ozempic to non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which is an eye condition.
However, this is the first situation where a regulator has acknowledged the side effects.
Roughly 1 in 10,000 people who take semaglutide, a key ingredient in Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus from Novo for at least 1 year, could be affected by thyroid tumors, the regulator mentioned.
The European Medicines Agency says use of Ozempic and Wegovy may cause rare occurrences of a potentially dangerous eye condition. Here's what you should know.https://t.co/Kt3pyGKGEs
— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) June 6, 2025
NAION causes blindness due to optic nerve damage more often than any other disease after glaucoma.
According to Barclays analyst Emily Field, “This has been reported as a potential risk for some time, so I think the clinical community is relatively aware of it. I don’t see this as making any major difference to prescribing patterns,” Reuters reported.
Before market close, Danish drugmaker shares moved ahead by about 2.5% on the New York Stock Exchange.
Because the EMA initiated its review in December, Novo has decided to add NAION as a possible rare side effect to the information attached to semaglutide-containing drugs.
Novo stated that the EMA would modify the labels, and both clinical trials and research done afterward didn’t suggest the drugs caused the disease.
Recent reports suggest that Novo’s investors fear it is losing its leading position in the competitive obesity treatment sector, which caused the firm to replace CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen in May, as Reuters reported.
At present, the weight-loss drug industry is led by Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, which together may be worth $150 billion in the coming decade.