Lawsuits Claim Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly Failed to Properly Disclose ‘Debilitating’ Side Effects of GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs
Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Products Liability Litigation
Filed: November 13, 2024 ◆§ 2:24-md-03094
Multidistrict litigation alleges Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have purposely downplayed the dangerous side effects of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound.
Multidistrict litigation alleges Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have purposely downplayed the dangerous side effects of weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound.
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The 244-page master complaint says the drugs at issue—specifically, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Victoza and Saxenda, and Eli Lilly’s Trulicity, Mounjaro and Zepbound—belong to a class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). Per the multidistrict litigation, which includes hundreds of personal injury lawsuits filed against the defendants, GLP-1 RAs are most often injectable medications prescribed to help manage blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes and assist with weight management.
The complaint contends that the defendants, in their attempt to attract patients with the promise of a miracle weight-loss drug, have failed to adequately warn consumers and healthcare providers about the nature, duration, extent and seriousness of the gastrointestinal symptoms (such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other side effects) linked to the use of their GLP-1 RA products.
According to the litigation, these medications can lead to various injuries, including gastroparesis—which may require hospitalization or emergency care. Other possible injuries are gastroenteritis; cyclical vomiting; bowel or intestinal obstruction; Wernicke’s Encephalopathy; ileus; ischemic bowel; Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT); gallbladder issues that could require surgery; esophageal and bowel injuries; acute necrotizing pancreatitis; vitamin deficiencies and more, the suit notes.
“These injuries can be debilitating and go so far as to result in death,” the filing says, claiming that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have misled the public by intentionally minimizing these risks in their product labeling, marketing materials and other public-facing communications.
The filing further alleges that the pharmaceutical companies have overstated the weight loss benefits of taking their GLP-1 RAs. As the case tells it, the defendants fail to disclose that the drugs do not lead to significant weight loss for up to 15 percent of patients, the average weight loss is a “modest” 10 percent of a patient’s body weight and continuous use is necessary to maintain weight loss. The complaint argues that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly also omit that many patients never achieve weight loss or any health benefit from the drugs because severe side effects force them to stop taking the medications.
Overall, the litigation takes issue with the defendants’ aggressive marketing campaigns for the weight loss drugs, which are allegedly rife with misrepresentations designed to deceive and defraud the public and the medical community.
“[The defendants] set on a course to create and expand the market for weight-loss medication by, among other things, advocating for obesity to be classified as a disease and thereby expanding the market for their drugs, spending hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to change the medical consensus on how to treat that disease, implementing cutting-edge invasive, unprecedented and multifaceted marketing campaigns that were so effective they engrained these drugs in the pop culture zeitgeist, and spending untold millions in an effort to get weight-loss medications covered under public and private insurance,” the complaint summarizes. “[The defendants] engaged in this conduct even before GLP-1 RAs were approved for weight-loss, encouraging extensive off-label demand and use.”
The GLP-1 RA multidistrict litigation was formed after the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered in February 2024 that 18 similar lawsuits be consolidated in Pennsylvania federal court. As of December 2024, the MDL contained over 1,300 actions.
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