Millions of Americans have turned to prescription medications to lose weight and treat diabetes. But do drug labels warn enough about potential side effects?
Juanita Gantt was prescribed both Wegovy and Ozempic. She later needed emergency surgery — and now she’s suing.
Gantt told CBS News she always struggled with her weight, weighing 242 pounds at age 62 despite trying various diets.
“Diabetes is rampant in my family, and I knew that that all plays with weight,” she said. “I almost felt defeated and humiliated. I mean, why couldn’t I lose this weight?”
Because of her diabetes risk, her doctor agreed she was a good candidate and prescribed her Wegovy and later Ozempic, both GLP-1 drugs made by Novo Nordisk.
“I was feeling fine. I enjoyed the days that I didn’t have to worry about my appetite. I didn’t have cravings. I just felt like I was doing something positive for myself,” Gantt said.
Several months later, in October 2023, Gantt’s husband found her on the floor unconscious.
“I had no idea what had happened to me,” she said.
Doctors found parts of her large intestine had died and needed to be removed. While recovering from surgery, she went into cardiac arrest, prompting the hospital to call her daughter to warn that her mother could die.
“Breaks my heart that my daughter got that phone call,” Gantt said, holding back tears. “Horrible.”
With her colon gone, Gantt now lives with an ileostomy bag attached to her abdomen at all times to collect waste.
“I had no warning that this was even a possibility,” she said.
She’s now suing prescription drugmaker Novo Nordisk, claiming its drug labels do not adequately warn patients and doctors about potentially serious side effects, including gastroparesis or stomach paralysis, and bowel obstruction.
“It’s put a lot of resources into marketing the drug, hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the market get new patients for the drug, but it hasn’t spent that money on warning patients the risk of gastroparesis, ileus, small bowel obstruction, and the fact that these injuries can be severe, even if it’s in a rare case,” said Gantt’s attorney, Parvin Aminolroaya.
In a statement to CBS News about this lawsuit and others against it, Novo Nordisk said in part, “The known risks and benefits of semaglutide and liraglutide medicines are described in their FDA-approved product labeling.” The company wrote that “the allegations in the lawsuits are without merit” and said it intends to “vigorously defend against these claims.”
Novo Nordisk also said semaglutide, the drug sold under the Ozempic and Wegovy brand names, has been extensively examined in robust clinical development programs and large real world evidence studies.
The company did not address CBS News’ questions about the specific conditions that Gantt experienced. It previously said in court documents that gastrointestinal symptoms are known and labeled side effects.
About 15 million U.S. adults say they’ve used injectable prescription drugs to reduce their body weight, according to Gallup. And while some say these GLP-1 drugs, better known by brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy, can have serious negative health effects including nausea and vomiting, many doctors do regard the drugs as key tools for patients.
Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said they are “game changers in many ways.”
“Not only are they helping people lose weight control their diabetes, but we’re seeing improvement in many medical conditions which are related to being obese or overweight. But at the same time, patients do need to be aware that there are risks,” she said. “Those are not necessarily risks that are outweighed by the benefits in every situation.”
A study published in October found a higher risk of bowel obstruction and stomach paralysis for patients taking certain GLP-1 drugs for weight loss when compared with another weight loss drug combination, though those complications were relatively rare.
“It’s really important for patients to kind of put that into context, that their individual risk may potentially be low, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen to them,” study co-author Dr. Mohit Sodhi said.
Gantt said she wants others to know about her experience.
“It just should not have happened to me. If it happened to me, it could happen to you,” she said.
