Taking Ozempic can cause blindness

Diabetics taking semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic and its analogues — editor's note, "Kholod") have a significantly increased risk of developing an eye disease that can lead to blindness. This is the conclusion reached by Harvard University researchers, as reported by The Guardian, based on a study that analyzed data from 16,827 patients treated at Harvard Clinical Hospital over six years.

As a result, the researchers found that people with diabetes who were prescribed semaglutide were more than four times more likely to be diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). This is a disease in which the arteries that supply blood to the optic nerve of the eye become blocked. As a result, the optic nerve experiences a lack of oxygen and is damaged, which can ultimately lead to vision loss. As the publication notes, there is currently no effective treatment for this disease, and on average, 10 people out of 100 thousand people suffer from it.

The study found that over three years, NPION developed in 8.9% of patients taking semaglutide to treat diabetes, compared with only 1.8% of patients prescribed other drugs.

At the same time, among patients taking semaglutide to combat obesity or excess weight, the risk of developing NPION was seven times higher than among those who took other drugs for the same purposes.

"Our results should be considered important but preliminary, as future studies are needed to examine these questions in a much larger and more diverse population," said Joseph Rizzo, professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, in a statement.

In turn, Graham McGeown, Emeritus Professor of Physiology at Queen's University Belfast, noted that the results indicate the need for larger studies of the relationship between semaglutide and NPION. "Given the rapid growth in the use of semaglutide and its possible licensing for the treatment of a range of problems other than obesity and type 2 diabetes, this issue deserves further study, but the potential side effects of the drug must always be weighed against the likely benefits," he stressed.

A representative of Novo Nordisk, the company that produces Ozempic, acknowledged that the development of NPION was not listed as one of the possible side effects in the instructions for the drug.

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