There is no known cure for gastroparesis. It can be painful; it can seriously damage a person’s quality of life, and it can be permanent. Maybe it’s time to look at this condition seriously. Maybe it’s also time to look at Novo Nordisk’s aggressive marketing of Ozempic.
As of March, 1,521 Ozempic personal injury lawsuits were pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s MDL 3094. Among other dangerous side effects, most of these lawsuits cite gastroparesis.
What is gastroparesis?
According to the Mayo Clinic, gastroparesis is a condition in which the muscles in the stomach do not move food as they should for it to be digested. The stomach’s movement, called motility, slows or doesn’t work at all.
The cause may be a mystery. Sometimes it is linked to diabetes, but certain medication including those taken for weight loss have also been implicated.
The condition can cause nausea, vomiting, severe belly pain and problems with blood sugar levels and nutrition. Gastroparesis can lead to dehydration and malnutrition.
Healthcare providers cannot directly fix the damage that causes gastroparesis, but they can offer treatment. Medications are the first treatment option. Surgery to remove a portion of the stomach is reserved for those who do not respond to medications or cannot take them. All treatments have potential side effects, and no one treatment works for everyone.
What happened to Samantha Hill?
In her lawsuit, Hill alleges that she was severely injured because she took Ozempic, Trulicity and Rybelsus to control her blood sugar and lose weight. All three medications belong to a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists (“GLP-1RAs”).
Novo Nordisk designed, researched, manufactured, tested, advertised, promoted, marketed, sold, and/or distributed Ozempic and Rybelsus. Trulicity is an Eli Lily drug.
As a result of taking these drugs, Samantha suffered from gastroparesis, nausea, severe vomiting, and required emergency medical treatment.
She is only 27. This is not what life is like for most 27-year-old women in the United States.
Why did this happen?
Hill advances seven legal theories about why this happened. The seven are:
- Negligent failure to warn about the risks of gastroparesis;
- Breach of an express warranty that the products were safe and effective;
- Breach of an implied warranty that Ozempic and other products were reasonably fit for their ordinary purpose;
- Fraudulent concealment of the dangers of Ozempic;
- Fraudulent misrepresentations about the safety, testing and dangers of the drugs;
- Negligent misrepresentations of the same; and
- Unfair trade and consumer protection violations.
These are fairly standard counts in a personal injury lawsuit like Hill. The themes that tie them all together are misrepresentation and concealment. Together, they paint a picture of widespread deception and the company’s cynical manipulation of patients, doctors and the public in general.
Aggressive advertising
Since 2018, Novo Nordisk has spent more than $884,000,000 on television ads in the United States to promote its semaglutide drugs with most of the spending allocated specifically to advertising Ozempic. The company offered an “Instant Savings Card to reduce co-pays to as low as $25 per prescription fill for up to two years. On July 30, 2018, Novo Nordisk launched its first television ad for Ozempic, to the tune of the 1970s hit pop song “Magic” by Pilot. Novo Nordisk claimed that “adults lost on average up to 12 pounds” when taking Ozempic, even though it is not indicated for weight loss.
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In addition, Novo Nordisk spent $11 million in 2022 on food and travel for doctors as part of its push to promote Ozempic and other weight loss-inducing diabetes drugs. The spending bought more than 457,000 meals for almost 12,000 doctors while also flying doctors to places like London, Paris, Orlando, and Honolulu. In 2023 the Alliance of Community Health Plans described Novo Nordisk’s spending on meals for doctors as “outrageous” and suggested that the millions Novo Nordisk spent marketing its drugs to prescribers would be better used furthering research about potential side effects and long-term effectiveness. None of the advertising or the promotional materials produced for medical professionals or the public warned of the risk of gastroparesis associated with Ozempic and Rybelsus.
Gastroparesis is a serious and painful condition. The MDL has already brought public attention to the harm that might have been avoided had Novo Nordisk been transparent about Ozempic’s dangerous side effects.
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