The legal landscape surrounding Ozempic and semaglutide medications involves product liability claims against pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk, alleging failure to warn patients and healthcare providers about serious health risks associated with these GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs.
As of November 2025, 2,914 lawsuits have been consolidated by the judicial panel in MDL 3094 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under Judge Karen S. Marston, with legal experts estimating that thousands of additional cases remain under investigation.
These lawsuits claim that Novo Nordisk knew or should have known about severe complications including gastroparesis and vision loss from Ozempic and other semaglutide medications but failed to provide adequate warnings on product labels or through direct communication with medical professionals.
Types of Injuries in Ozempic Litigation
Plaintiffs in Ozempic litigation report a range of serious, often permanent injuries that have substantially impacted their health and quality of life.
The severity of these conditions and increasing news coverage has driven rapid growth in the MDL, with more than 100 new lawsuits filed in October 2025 alone.
Plaintiffs in Ozempic litigation report injuries that have substantially impacted their health and quality of life:
- Gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) causing severe vomiting, inability to digest food properly, and malnutrition requiring feeding tubes
- Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) resulting in sudden, permanent vision loss affecting one or both eyes
- Ileus and intestinal obstruction requiring emergency hospitalization and surgical procedures
- Severe gastrointestinal complications including bowel perforation and chronic digestive dysfunction
- Gallbladder disease necessitating surgical removal
- Aspiration pneumonia from persistent vomiting and impaired gastric emptying
Gastroparesis affects approximately 4% of the population, but studies show that patients with definite gastroparesis have a 5-year survival rate of only 67% – considerably lower than the 81% expected survival rate in the general population.
The condition causes the stomach muscles to stop working properly, preventing food from moving into the small intestine at a normal rate and often resulting in severe abdominal pain.
Many Ozempic patients experience severe vomiting, dramatic weight loss, and chronic malnutrition that requires hospitalization for feeding tube placement or total parenteral nutrition.
NAION represents an equally devastating complication, causing sudden and irreversible vision loss when blood flow to the optic nerve stops, requiring patients to seek medical attention immediately.
The World Health Organization warned in June 2025 that semaglutide drugs may cause NAION, with the European Medicines Agency classifying it as a “very rare” side effect potentially affecting up to 1 in 10,000 Ozempic users.
Studies published in 2024 that linked Ozempic and other semaglutide medications to NAION showed patients had more than a fourfold heightened risk of developing this condition compared to those not taking GLP-1 medications.
Unlike many medical conditions, NAION has no effective treatment available, making the vision loss permanent in nearly all cases.
If you or a loved one experienced gastroparesis, vision loss, or other severe health complications after taking Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus, you may be eligible to seek compensation.
Contact TruLaw using the chat on this page to receive an instant case evaluation and determine whether you qualify to join others in filing an Ozempic lawsuit today.
Legal Basis for Ozempic Claims
Ozempic lawsuits rest on established products liability litigation theories that hold pharmaceutical manufacturers responsible for ensuring drug safety and providing adequate warnings about known risks.
The primary legal theory involves failure to warn claims under both strict liability and negligence doctrines.
Product liability claims against Novo Nordisk rest on several established legal theories:
- Failure to warn patients and healthcare providers about the risk of gastroparesis despite evidence suggesting Novo Nordisk knew or should have known about this severe complication
- Inadequate labeling that minimized the severity and permanence of gastrointestinal side effects
- Defective warnings that failed to communicate the risk of NAION and permanent vision loss to prescribing physicians
- Negligent testing and post-market surveillance that should have detected these patterns of serious adverse events earlier
- Breach of implied warranty that the medication was safe for its intended use when prescribed as directed
The FDA’s regulatory timeline supports plaintiff allegations that warnings came too late.
The FDA approved Ozempic in December 2017 for type 2 diabetes treatment, but the agency didn’t add ileus warnings to the label until September 2023 – nearly six years after approval.
Even more concerning, the FDA updated Ozempic’s warning label in January 2025 to state that Ozempic is “not recommended in patients with severe gastroparesis,” but this warning doesn’t indicate that the drug itself may cause the condition.
This delayed and inadequate labeling forms the basis for failure-to-warn claims, which argue that had patients and doctors received proper warnings about gastroparesis and vision loss risks, many would have chosen alternative diabetes medications or weight loss treatments.
Pharmaceutical product liability law imposes a continuing duty on manufacturers to monitor post-market safety data and update warnings about potential risks as new information emerges.
Plaintiffs allege that Novo Nordisk failed to meet this obligation despite reports of adverse reactions including gastroparesis and NAION cases appearing in medical literature and FDA adverse event databases.
The company’s alleged knowledge of these adverse effects, combined with inadequate labeling updates, strengthens the legal basis for both compensatory and potentially punitive damages in individual cases.
TruLaw partners with pharmaceutical litigation leaders who possess deep knowledge of FDA regulatory requirements and product liability law, ensuring clients receive representation from attorneys who can effectively evaluate eligibility and build strong cases based on these legal theories.