A Pennsylvania mom is suing the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy claiming she nearly died from taking the prescription drugs and wasn’t properly warned about potentially harrowing side effects.
Juanita Gantt said her doctor prescribed the trendy weight-loss drugs because she had a higher risk for diabetes and wanted to shed more than 20 pounds.
Her doctor initially prescribed Wegovy before switching her to Ozempic. The GLP-1 (or glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs are both produced by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.
Gantt said she was initially feeling “fine” for the first few months of her treatment until her husband found her unconscious on the floor in October 2023.
“I had no warning that this was even a possibility,” she said in an interview on CBS News.
Doctors discovered that sections of her large intestine died and needed to be removed but as she was recovering from surgery Gantt went into cardiac arrest.
Fearing Gantt could die, health officials went so far as to call her daughter to warn her.
“Breaks my heart that my daughter got that phone call,” Gantt added.
Gantt’s colon was removed as a result, and she now must use a ileostomy bag wherever she goes.
The terrifying ordeal led Gantt to file suit against Novo Nordisk over warning labels on their drugs. Gantt claims the labels don’t properly warn users and doctors about serious side effects like gastroparesis, stomach paralysis, or even bowel obstruction.
The prescription drugmaker told CBS in a statement that “the allegations in the lawsuits are without merit” and that it will “vigorously defend against these claims.”
The drugs were originally created for diabetics because it stimulates insulin release and reduces blood sugar after eating — but in recent years, a surge of people have been using the drugs to lose weight.
Ozempic warns of side effects on its website like inflammation of your pancreas, changes in vision, low blood sugar, kidney problems, serious allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and more.
In March 2024, Wegovy became “the first weight loss medication to also be approved to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight” according to a press release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Ozemipc has not been FDA approved for weight management but is approved to help people with type 2 diabetes. However, doctors have been prescribing it “off-label” in recent years due to the surge in popularity for weight loss.
According to an analysis by Gallup, an estimated 15 million Americans say they’ve used GLP-1 drugs to lose weight and a majority of people are above the age of 40.
