今年7月，哈佛大学医学院附属麻省眼耳医院发布研究称，诺和诺德Ozempic和Wegovy可能与患上罕见视觉功能丧失的风险上升有关。A recent study confirms that the star drug Ozempic from Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo-Nordisk A/S is associated with an increased risk of a rare vision loss disease; according to Nordic researchers analyzing years of patient records from Denmark and Norway, diabetes patients using Ozempic are more than twice as likely to develop NAION compared to patients using another diabetes drug.
According to a report from the Financial Association on December 14 (Editor: Xia Junxiong), a recent study confirms that the star drug Ozempic from Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo-Nordisk A/S is associated with an increased risk of a rare vision loss disease.
Affected by this news, shares of Novo-Nordisk A/S fell nearly 4% at the close of European markets. As of the time of writing, the stock is down nearly 3% in the U.S. markets.
In July this year, researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, released a study stating that Novo-Nordisk A/S's Ozempic and Wegovy may be linked to an increased risk of rare vision function loss.
Research results based on medical records indicate that patients using Novo-Nordisk A/S weight loss drugs to lose weight are more than six times as likely to develop non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) compared to those using other weight loss medications.
Ozempic is a diabetes drug under Novo-Nordisk A/S, while Wegovy is the company's weight loss product; both share the same active ingredient, Semaglutide. Semaglutide and Eli Lilly and Co's Tirzepatide are currently the two hottest GLP-1 weight loss drugs on the market.
According to an analysis by Nordic researchers of years of patient records from Denmark and Norway, diabetes patients using Ozempic are more than twice as likely to develop NAION compared to patients using another diabetes drug. The study has not determined if using Wegovy has a similar effect.
The results of this study were published on December 11 on the preprint platform medRxiv, which has not undergone external scientific review.
It should be noted that, compared to the research from Harvard, the risk of NAION found in this Nordic study is lower. It is reported that the Harvard study focused on a patient group that had undergone neuro-ophthalmic evaluations, which may indicate a more complex condition.
NAION is a disease caused by reduced blood flow leading to optic nerve damage, more common in people over 50 years old. Diabetes itself, heart disease, sleep apnea, and other health issues can also increase the risk of developing this disease.
The study found that the incidence of NAION in patients using Ozempic is very low, with only 1.4 additional cases observed per 0.01 million patient-years (that is, over a cumulative observation period of one year for 0.01 million people). However, this disease is irreversible, untreatable, and may lead to blindness, so doctors recommend that patients be informed of the potential risks.
The study states that assuming the risk remains constant over the long term, if type 2 diabetes patients continuously use Ozempic for up to 20 years, the likelihood of developing NAION would be about 0.3% to 0.5%.
Researchers from South Denmark University, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and the University of Copenhagen participated in this study, which began in early 2018 (the year Ozempic was launched in Denmark and Norway) and concluded patient tracking in mid-year. The study covered over 0.044 million Ozempic users in Denmark and over 0.016 million users in Norway, with a total of 32 cases of NAION identified.
Wegovy was launched in Denmark in 2022 and in Norway in early 2023, but due to the insufficient number of enrolled patients, there are no conclusive results regarding the association between Wegovy and NAION.
