Nutrition & Health News This Week

The Ozempic lawsuits have begun; Vegan burgers and beer are bad vs. wine is good (the latest in the ultra-processed food dilemmas)

Let the Ozempic lawsuits begin…

You knew the lawsuits were coming. Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, and others in the GLP-1 agonist category are just too rich a target. (Novo Nordisk, the leading manufacturer, now has a market cap of more than $600 billion, in March surpassing that of Tesla). And side effects have been serious. In a 2-year trial of semaglutide (2.4mg), the active ingredient in Ozempic and Rybelsus, 82% of the overweight obese subjects reported gastrointestinal issues. A survey of 4200-plus GLP1 users found that almost 70% stopped their treatment within a year. Still, the “10,000” lawsuits number thrown out by the Daily Mail in a headline this week was pure speculation. Lawyers have filed only about 100 cases so far, tied to Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy, Trulicity, and Mounjaro. In April, these were consolidated into a single MDL, or “multidistrict lawsuit,” which combines similar cases from different jurisdictions in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. They’re collectively dubbed the “Ozempic litigation.” 

The case number is expected to rise dramatically, however, when the court approves a “short form complaint,” which is--like it sounds--an easier way to file. Robert King, whose eponymous law firm is collecting potential Ozempic cases, says that the most common injuries among these cases are bowel obstruction and gastroparesis (paralysis of the stomach), which do not have “black box” warnings on the label of at least some of these drugs and therefore can be contested for not having provided adequate caution. Tracing the causation of these conditions back to a GLP-1 is fraught, though, with the same association-is-not-causality problems found in all observational studies. Any injury in these cases could potentially be traced back to other causes, such as a previous gastric surgery or bowel disease rather than the drug. (King says he’s avoiding such cases.)

In any event, lawsuits are likely to be little more than a speed bump in the relentless demand for the slimming shots. Unless…we find out that the “stomach flu” that landed Oprah Winfrey in the hospital this week, only two months after her hour-long Ozempic special-cum-infomercial, turns out to be something worse. We’re staying tuned.

A new (vegan burger) twist on how ultra-processed food is bad