Ozempic faces scrutiny over possible risk of eye condition

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There may be a new, unintended side effect related to NordiskOzempic's successful diabetes injection.

Danish health authorities said Monday they are asking the European Union's drug regulator to review the findings of two Danish studies linking Ozempic to an increased risk of a rare vision-threatening eye condition in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The condition is called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy or NAION. It is characterized by vision loss due to decreased blood flow to the front part of the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain.

The disease usually occurs without pain and most often affects people 50 years of age or older. According to some estimates, NAION affects between 2.3 and 10.3 patients per 100,000 people per year in the United States.

The Danish Medicines Agency said it has been closely monitoring NAION as a possible adverse effect of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, for the past six months. The agency received 19 reports about the condition in Denmark as of December 10.

But the total number of NAION cases in Denmark has increased since Ozempic was introduced to the Danish market in 2018, Jakob Grauslund, professor of eye diseases at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), said in a statement on Monday. Denmark used to see 60 to 70 cases a year, but now has up to 150, added Grauslund, who helped conduct one of the studies.

It's the latest potential concern about popular GLP-1s like Ozempic, which mimic gut hormones to regulate blood sugar and reduce appetite. Demand for this class of drugs has skyrocketed despite high prices and a handful of unpleasant side effects that are usually gastrointestinal, such as nausea and vomiting.

In a statement on Monday, Novo Nordisk said that after a “thorough evaluation of the studies” and an internal safety assessment, the Danish drugmaker “is of the view that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains unchanged.” The company added that patient safety was a top priority.

The studies, conducted independently by researchers at SDU and other institutions, found that patients with diabetes who used Ozempic were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with the condition as those taking another diabetes medication.

The first Danish study was based on data from more than 400,000 diabetes patients, a quarter of whom were treated with Ozempic and the rest with other diabetes medications. The second study involved data from more than 44,000 Danish patients with diabetes who received Ozempic between 2018 and 2024 and almost 17,000 Norwegian patients who took the drug between 2018 and 2022.

The studies were published on medRxiv, a website that publishes studies before they are reviewed by outside scientists. Both appear to confirm a link first suggested in a Harvard University study earlier this year.

Still, the authors of the first SDU study said the absolute risk of the condition among semaglutide users is low. They added that assuming the risk remains constant over time, the results indicate that a patient with diabetes taking Ozempic for 20 years would have a 0.3% to 0.5% chance of developing NAION.

“Although our findings do not rule out the possibility of an increased risk of NAION when semaglutide is used for obesity, the low number of events observed suggests that any potential risk is likely to be of limited absolute magnitude,” the authors of the first study said.

They added that additional, differently designed analyzes are needed to further investigate whether Wegovy users, who take semaglutide for obesity, are also at increased risk for the condition.

For now, analysts are less concerned about NAION's risk and its potential to reduce Ozempic prescriptions.

“Unless semaglutide is found to be unique among GLP-1 in harboring this risk, prescribing [is] “Not likely to be impacted,” TD Cowen analyst Michael Nedelcovych said in a research note on Monday.

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If doctors have their way, telehealth is here to stay. This is according to a new report from Doximity, which found that 83% of doctors would like telemedicine to remain “a permanent part of their clinical practice.”

Doximity runs a digital platform for medical professionals that has been compared to a LinkedIn for doctors. But users can do more than connect and read news on Doximity, as the company also offers telemedicine tools such as voice and video calls.

With the company having some skin in the game, Doximity released a report Tuesday outlining the state of telemedicine in the U.S. and its role in healthcare delivery. In August, it surveyed 1,171 of its physician telemedicine users and 131 of its nurse practitioner telemedicine users.

More than 77% of physicians surveyed said they use telehealth weekly and 35% said they have incorporated the technology into their daily clinical practice. Nearly 90% of nurse practitioners said they use telemedicine weekly and 52% do so daily.

“Strong medical support for telemedicine underscores its growing role in modern healthcare, with the potential to transform the way care is delivered for years to come,” Doximity said.

Additionally, about two-thirds of doctors said telehealth had “improved patient outcomes” in their practices, particularly among neurologists, endocrinologists and rheumatologists. Doximity found that endocrinologists, urologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and neurologists were the biggest adopters of the technology, respectively.

The most common use of telemedicine in clinical practice is for follow-up visits, as 84% ​​of doctors said they will use the technology to make those appointments. Next, 60% of doctors said they use telehealth for medication management, 57% said they use it to discuss lab reports or test results with patients, and 52% said they use it to help clinicians. patients to control chronic diseases.

Half of doctors surveyed said telemedicine had improved patient adherence to treatment plans, up from 37% last year.

Nearly a third of doctors said technology had helped them see more patients per day, and two-thirds said it had helped them treat their patients better.

Read the full Doximity report here.

Please feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas, or information to Ashley at [email protected].