Ozempic Wegovy Linked with Higher Risk of Rare Blinding Eye Condition in New Harvard Study

Users of Ozempic and related trendy weight-loss drugs may be more likely to develop a rare form of blindness, researchers are reporting.

The study found that a prescription for Ozempic and other drugs containing the active compound, semaglutide, was associated with an increased risk of NAION, or nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

It’s a mouthful, but relatively rare, affecting two to 10 in every 100,000 people per year. The blinding eye condition causes sudden and painless but permanent loss of vision in one eye due to insufficient blood flow and oxygen to the optic nerve. It’s sometimes referred to as an “eye stroke” and is a significant cause of blindness among adults.

Researchers at Mass Eye and Ear in Boston, Massachusetts, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, became motivated late last summer to look at whether today’s highly sought-after weight-loss drugs might be associated with an increased risk of NAION, after three patients, all taking semaglutide, were diagnosed with the condition within the same week.

Their study, published today in JAMA Opthalmology, found people prescribed semagultide for obesity were seven times more likely to get a diagnosis of NAION than people prescribed different drugs for being overweight. People prescribed semaglutide for type 2 diabetes were four times more likely to get the rare eye diagnosis.

“Our main finding is that prescribed semaglutide is associated with an increased risk of NAION,” the researchers wrote.

The study wasn’t designed to answer whether there is a casual relationship between the two. Given the millions of people taking the drugs globally, “we should be confident that if corroborated, the absolute risk of developing NAION in direct relation to taking semaglutide must indeed be rare,” Dr. Susan Mollan, a University of Birmingham professor who investigates rare diseases of the eye and brain, wrote in an accompanying commentary. She also added that the potential risk shouldn’t dissuade people from using GLP-1 drugs for diabetes or obesity “at this time.”