Over 4,000 Americans have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of GLP-1 drugs, including Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic and Wegovy. They claim they were not adequately warned about life-altering side effects, such as blindness and severe vomiting, that they now live with.
Diane Wirth, a 66-year-old nurse practitioner from Hartwell, Georgia, started taking Wegovy in February 2025 for weight loss. Seven weeks later, she woke up blind in her right eye due to non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a rare condition that compromises blood flow to the optic nerve. She is now legally blind and forced into early retirement.
“If someone would have told me there was a chance that a drug I was taking could make me blind, I would never, ever, have taken the first shot,” Wirth told The Independent. Her attorney, Jason Goldstein, said his firm represents “hundreds” of plaintiffs in mass-tort litigation.
In Europe, Novo Nordisk updated labels for Wegovy and Ozempic to warn that semaglutide may cause NAION in up to 1 in 10,000 patients. However, US labels only warn of vision changes without specifically mentioning NAION. A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said patient safety is the company’s “top priority” but declined to comment on individual cases.
