Ozempic And Other Weight Loss Drugs Linked To Over 160 Deaths In US: Report. (Image: iStock)
According to media reports, weight loss shots like Ozempic and Wegovy have been linked to 162 deaths in the United States. The data is from the past 6 years. These casualties have been listen in the FDA’s FAERS (FDA Adverse Event Reporting System) database. For the unversed, this database stores reports on adverse reactions, safety concerns and quality complaints about drugs once they are marketed.
For those who don't know Ozempic was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat diabetes back in 2017. In 2021, another drug with Ozempic as the main ingredient got a thumbs up, but this time it was to fight obesity. It was named Wegovy. The injectable suddenly went viral when Elon Musk spilled the beans about using Wegovy during an interview.
Now before you get confused, both Ozempic and Wegovy are the same drug, semaglutide, just that they are administered in slightly different doses. Soon after Musk spoke about it, other big names like Oprah Winfrey, Tracy Morgan, Amy Schumer, Lauren Manzo, Emily Simpson, and Jessica Simpson all admitted to hopping on the Ozempic weight loss train.
While none of the deaths are proven to be explicitly caused by semaglutide injections, there are reports which highlight that they were a factor in the fatalities.
Meanwhile, last year, an Australian woman who took Ozempic to lose a few pounds before her daughter’s wedding died from gastrointestinal illness. Her family claims was caused by the medication.
Since 2018, the FDA’s system has recorded about 62,000 reactions to weight loss drugs like Ozempic. Majority of these reactions were recorded in the past two years after semaglutide gained popularity. Within the FAERS database, a total of 10,000 reactions were classified as “serious,” or where a patient was hospitalized or suffered from a life-threatening event.
Meanwhile, 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." Ozempic warns of various side effects on its website, like pancreatic inflammation, low blood sugar, kidney problems, serious allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and more.
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