Wegovy Bowel Obstruction Lawsuit Alleges Weight-Loss Injections Caused Gastroparesis

After receiving injections of Wegovy, a higher dose version of Ozempic designed for weight loss, a Kentucky woman says she suffered bowel obstructions and gastroparesis due to the drug’s side effects.

Angela Hall filed a complaint (PDF) against Novo Nordisk on April 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, indicating that the drug maker failed to adequately warn about the risk that Wegovy may cause bowel obstructions and stomach paralysis, resulting in severe injuries and permanent health problems.

According to the lawsuit, Hall was prescribed Wegovy injections in May 2023 for weight loss. However, by December 2023, she was admitted to an emergency room due to symptoms of severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

Eventually, the lawsuit indicates Hall was hospitalized on multiple occasions due to small bowel obstruction and gastroparesis. Each time she was hospitalized for multiple days. However, the lawsuit notes that even after Hall was released from the hospital, she continues to need follow-up care due to her injuries.

Wegovy and Ozempic Health Concerns

Wegovy (semaglutide) is a higher dose version of the blockbuster drug Ozempic, which was initially approved for the treatment of people with Type 2 diabetes, and is part of a popular new class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs). However, amid aggressive advertisements that promoted the weight loss benefits, Ozempic was widely prescribed as a diet drug, making it a blockbuster treatment that has been used by millions of Americans.

As a result of the popularity of Ozempic for weight loss, Novo Nordisk introduced Wegovy; which contains the same active pharmaceutical ingredient, but is specifically approved as a weight loss injection.

Although advertisements promote the drug as safe and effective, with few serious health risks, Hall now joins a growing number of other former users pursuing Wegovy lawsuits and Ozempic lawsuits against Novo Nordisk, each raising similar allegations that a large number of users are experiencing long-term side effects, including intestinal blockages, stomach paralysis and other injuries.

“According to the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System, Defendants were aware of reports of intestinal obstruction no later than 2019 for Ozempic and/or Wegovy,” Hall’s lawsuit states. “These reports to the FDA also stated that many of these patients reporting intestinal obstruction or blockage were hospitalized.”

May 2024 Wegovy Lawsuit Update

Given common questions of fact and law raised in the litigation, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided earlier this year to centralize all GLP-1 lawsuits before U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as part of a federal MDL (multidistrict litigation).

With the widespread use of these medications in recent years for weight loss, it is widely expected that thousands of claims will be transferred to the Wegovy litigation as lawyers continue to review and file claims in the coming months, with some estimates indicating nearly 2% of the U.S. population has been prescribed one of the GLP-1 medications, either for diabetes treatment or weight loss.

To help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation, it is expected that Judge Pratter will establish a bellwether process to prepare a small group of Ozempic or Wegovy lawsuits for early trial dates. However, if the parties are unable to negotiate settlements or another resolution for the litigation after the bellwether trials, the Court may later remand each case back to the U.S. District Court where it was originally filed for trial.