People who use semaglutide, the active ingredient in diabetes and weight-loss medications like Ozempic, face twice the risk of developing a serious eye condition that can lead to blindness, according to two new studies. However, the overall risk of developing the condition still remains low.
The research, out of the University of Southern Denmark, builds on work from the U.S. published in July 2024, that linked semaglutide and a condition that causes loss of blood flow to the main nerve connecting the eye to the brain. The condition, called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), can result in blindness. Risk factors for NAION include diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
“This is a serious but very rare side effect,” Anton Pottegård, an OSD expert on medicine use and author of one of the Danish studies, said in a press release. “Often, we only learn about this kind of thing after a new drug has been on the market for a few years, as is the case with Ozempic. It should be emphasized that it is neither more serious nor more common than the rare side effects of many other medicines that we continue to use.”
