Eye docs in Boston have began to note a small however worrisome uptick in circumstances of a uncommon sort of sudden blindness amongst sufferers taking semaglutide.
They’re elevating questions on whether or not taking Ozempic or Wegovy is perhaps resulting in extra circumstances of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a uncommon situation the place blood stops flowing to the optic nerve, disturbing the connection between the attention and the mind. The problem sometimes surfaces out of the blue, with out ache, and ends in folks waking up within the morning unable to see out of 1 eye.
The brand new investigation, printed Wednesday in JAMA Ophthalmology, discovered that folks taking semaglutide appeared barely extra more likely to develop NAION than different sufferers with weight problems or diabetes. (Semaglutide is the energetic ingredient in two Novo Nordisk medication: Ozempic for sort 2 diabetes, and Wegovy for weight problems.)
Uncommon, and notable
The variety of sufferers on semaglutide who developed NAION was nonetheless tiny: out of greater than 16,000 eye sufferers in Massachusetts included on this six-year retrospective investigation, solely 37 folks on semaglutide developed NAION. However that was nonetheless greater than 4 instances extra eye issues than different, related sufferers who weren’t on the medication skilled over the identical time interval. Solely 9 people with diabetes or weight problems who weren’t on semaglutide developed NAION, in response to the researchers.
“That is data we didn’t have earlier than and it needs to be included in discussions between sufferers and their docs, particularly if sufferers produce other identified optic nerve issues like glaucoma, or if there may be preexisting important visible loss from different causes,” lead research writer Dr. Joseph Rizzo, the director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Mass Eye and Ear and a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical Faculty, mentioned in a information launch.
“Using these medication has exploded all through industrialized international locations and so they have supplied very important advantages in some ways, however future discussions between a affected person and their doctor ought to embrace NAION as a possible threat.”
Pushback from Novo Nordisk
In an announcement despatched to Enterprise Insider, semaglutide maker Novo Nordisk mentioned “affected person security is a high precedence for Novo Nordisk , and we take all experiences about opposed occasions from using our medicines very critically.”
However the drugmaker additionally raised issues concerning the methods this research was performed, saying there have been too few circumstances within the trial to attract significant conclusions, and that this sort of backward-looking research may by no means reply questions on a causal hyperlink between semaglutide and NAION.
“NAION is just not an opposed drug response for the marketed formulations of semaglutide,” the corporate mentioned.
Sufferers with diabetes and hypertension have at all times been at an elevated threat of creating eyesight points. For instance, having chronically excessive blood sugar can distort your eye lenses, contributing to blurry imaginative and prescient. (Novo Nordisk can also be engaged on one other, separate research, testing whether or not semaglutide is perhaps helpful in treating diabetic retinopathy.) NAION is often everlasting, and there’s no therapy for it.
