A mum looking to lose some weight ahead of her daughter’s wedding died after taking the so-called miracle drug Ozempic.
The drug is regularly used to treat Type 2 diabetes but in recent years has been widely adopted as a weight loss treatment across the world.
Trish Webster, 56, was prescribed Ozempic alongside another prescription injection Saxenda to squeeze into her dress for her daughter’s nuptials.
But within weeks of the ceremony, Trish’s husband Roy found her unconscious on the ground of their home, a brown liquid seeping out of her mouth.
After attempts to restart her heart with CPR, the doctors declared her dead and found she had suffered from a severe gastrointestinal illness.
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Ozempic mimics a natural hormone, GLP-1, and slows down the passage of food in the stomach, making a person feel full for a longer period.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the use of Ozempic for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes alongside diet and exercise.
But the agency has received reports of at least three deaths related to the use of the drug as a weight-loss treatment in recent months.
Roy Webster said the drug made his wife shed approximately 35 pounds in five months but also left her feeling ill.
In January this year, he returned home and found her collapsed on the ground: “She had a little bit of brown stuff coming out of her mouth, and I realized she wasn’t breathing and started doing CPR.
“It was just pouring out, and I turned her onto the side because she couldn’t breathe.”
He told 60 Minutes Australia: “If I knew that could happen, she wouldn’t have been taking it. I never thought you could die from it.”
While the woman’s death has not been linked officially to either Ozempic or Saxenda usage, Webster had been blaming the drugs.
He added: “She shouldn’t be gone, you know. It’s just not worth it, it’s not worth it at all.”
Drug agencies across the world have received several reports of intestinal blockage, called ileus, following the prescription of Ozempic.
The drug’s manufacturer Novo Nordisk said ileus reports only emerged after its “post-marketing setting,” suggesting they only became aware of the issue once Ozempic was released.
The company is currently facing a lawsuit in the United States over claims that the popular drug can cause severe gastrointestinal problems to users.
Speaking to The New York Post, a representative for Novo Nordisk said: “Semaglutide has been extensively examined in robust clinical development programs, large real-world evidence studies and has cumulatively over 9.5 million patient years of exposure.”
They also argued that “gastrointestinal (GI) events are well-known side effects of the GLP-1 class.”
Over the summer, European and British regulators also started to investigate reports of GLP-1 receptor antagonists contained in Ozempic and similar weight loss drugs resulting in suicidal thoughts.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed in August they were reviewing “the risk of suicidal thoughts and thoughts of self-harm” with drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes and weight loss.
The family of a man who took his own life after starting to use Ozempic have been campaigning for the inclusion of a label warning of the risk of taking the drug on boxes.
Responding to claims of a link between the drug and suicidal thoughts, Novo Nordisk said in a statement: “The totality of available evidence — which includes clinical studies and data from real-world use — does not suggest an increased risk of suicide or self-injurious behaviour with Ozempic.
“In completed Ozempic clinical studies, no events of suicide or self-injury were reported in patients treated with Ozempic.”
