Researchers have established a troubling link between semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, with suicidal ideation.
As detailed in a paper published in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers from an international consortium of academic and health institutions found that when compared to other diabetes drugs, the appetite suppressant appears to be linked to a substantially higher risk of suicidal thoughts.
The researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing a World Health Organization database that, like the Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), tracks unintended suspected side effects of medications.
As they found, taking Ozempic and its weight loss counterpart Wegovy was associated with a 45 percent greater risk of reported suicidal ideation compared to all the other drugs in the database. That list includes Saxenda and Victroza, the other brand names associated with an older and less-effective GLP-1 drug called liraglutide that's also manufactured by Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk.
Notably, this link being established in a peer-reviewed academic journal offers more evidence to anecdotal claims that semaglutide has not only led to suicidal ideation, but also to attempts — some of which were, tragically, successful.
Other experts, however, called the researchers' conclusions into question.
"This paper presents, at best, weak evidence of an association between semaglutide and suicidality," London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine pharmacoepidemiology professor Ian Douglas, who was not involved in the research, told CNN, adding that these types of studies can't prove cause and effect.
Other experts told the broadcaster that given the lack of more precise data, doctors should nonetheless be careful to prescribe drugs like semaglutide to people with a history of depression or suicidal thoughts.
Governments also have yet to find evidence supporting these findings. Both the United States' FDA and the European Medicines Agency have investigated the purported link. In January of this year, the FDA declared that it hadn't found any "clear relationship" between semaglutide and suicidal thoughts, and a few months later, its European Union counterpart followed suit.
Last year, Novo insisted in a statement to Reuters that although it takes "all reports about adverse events from use of our medicines very seriously," its in-house monitoring had found no "causal association" between semaglutide and suicidality.
With these new findings, however, the Denmark-based firm is doubling down on its defense of the drug that has made Novo tens of billions of dollars.
"The known risks associated with use of these medicines are reflected in their current FDA- and EMA-approved product labeling," a company spokesperson told STAT News.
The FDA, meanwhile, is staying mum.
"In general, the FDA does not comment on third-party research or individual reports," an agency spox told the health website, "but may evaluate them as part of the body of evidence to further our understanding about a particular issue and assist in our mission to protect public health."
With its laundry list of benefits growing longer by the week, researchers looking into the potential undesirable side effects of these uber-popular drugs are probably not going to make many friends.
Nevertheless, it's an important area of research, especially given the drugs' explosive popularity.
More on adverse events: FDA Says People Are Taking 20 Times the Proper Dose of Ozempic and Overdosing
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