Ozempic, Mounjaro May Soon Be Touted as Addiction Treatments Following New Study

A new study suggests that an increasingly popular class of weight loss and diabetes drugs, which includes Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and other blockbuster medications, may also serve as potential treatments for individuals suffering from addiction.

Originally approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, Ozempic, Mounjaro and other glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist medications have more recently been identified as breakthrough weight loss treatments, leading to widespread use by individuals throughout the United States in recent years.

As the number of users rapidly grows, new evidence has continued to emerge that suggests the same benefits that help the drugs promote weight loss may also have other important health benefits, including reducing the risk of major cardiovascular events, improving heart failure symptoms and reducing urges that lead to alcoholism or drug abuse.

However, while the drugs have been promoted as safe, with few long-term side effects, concerns have emerged in recent years about potentially serious gastrointestinal problems caused by Ozempic, Mounjaro and other GLP-1 medications, which can cause some users to experience a form of stomach paralysis known as gastroparesis, in which food lingers in the stomach, leading to a number of serious and potentially life-threatening complications.

As a result of the drug makers’ failure to adequately warn about these risks, thousands of former users are now pursuing Ozempic lawsuits, Wegovy lawsuits and Mounjaro lawsuits, each raising similar allegations that the manufacturers placed a desire for increased profits above consumer safety by failing to research and disclose side effects users may experience before promoting the widespread use of the medications.

GLP-1 Studies Offer Conflicting Theories

In a new study published in the medical journal Addiction on October 16, researchers from Loyola University Chicago highlight how GLP-1 medications have the potential to help patients break life-disrupting addictions.

The team, led by Dr. Fares Qeadan, conducted a retrospective cohort study that analyzed anonymous electronic health records from 136 U.S. health systems. The study included more than half a million adult patients with a history of opioid use disorder, and another 800,000 with a history of alcohol use disorder.

According to their findings, patients taking GLP-1 medications, and those taking glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) drugs (a subclass of GLP-1 medications that includes Mounjaro) were 40% less likely to suffer an opioid overdose, and 50% less likely to experience alcohol intoxication when compared to those who did not take the drugs. The researchers found that these benefits appeared to hold consistent even when factoring in other comorbidities, such as patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity.

“This study’s findings have the potential to suggest significant implications for both clinical practice and public health policy in the coming years,” the researchers concluded. “Future research should focus on prospective clinical trials to validate these findings, explore the underlying mechanisms and determine the long-term efficacy and safety of GIP/GLP-1 RA medications in diverse populations.”

Concerns About GLP-1 Side Effects

Some of the safety studies already conducted, as well as lawsuits filed by a growing number of users, have identified a number of potential GLP-1 side effects, including stomach paralysis, or gastroparesis, as well as bowel obstructions, ileus and other concerns.

In June 2023, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) issued new Ozempic and Wegovy surgery guidelines that warned against using the drugs before elective surgery, due to the risk of vomiting and aspiration during anesthesia.

Additionally, a report published this summer in Cureus found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received hundreds of thousands of GLP-1 adverse events over the last 20 years, indicating that newer drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are linked to higher rates of serious side effects among younger patients and women, while older drugs, like Victoza and Byetta, were linked to higher rates of mortality.

Another report, also released this summer in the Annals of Emergency Medicine warned emergency rooms to be better prepared to address Ozempic problems among patients, particularly when emergency sedation is needed, which may increase the risk of vomiting or aspiration due to the delayed gastric emptying caused by these drugs.

October 2024 Ozempic and Mounjaro Lawsuit Update

Given common questions of law and fact raised in product liability claims brought by former users who indicate they were not adequately warned about the risks associated with GLP-1 medications, an Ozempic and Mounjaro lawsuit MDL was established in February 2024, which centralized claims brought throughout the federal court system before U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As part of the early management of the litigation, Judge Marston has determined that the court will prioritize pretrial proceedings that will allow early rulings about whether the claims are preempted by federal law and whether plaintiffs must provide specific gastroparesis diagnostic testing evidence in the Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro lawsuits.

After this and several other “cross cutting” issues are addressed, the court is expected to establish a bellwether program, where a small group of representative claims may be prepared for early trial dates to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

While the outcomes in these claims will not be binding on other claimants, the average lawsuit payouts may impact the amount of Ozempic and Mounjaro settlements the drug makers may later need to offer to avoid the need for each individual case to go before separate juries in future years.