On June 12, 2025, a group of twenty-one plaintiffs filed an application seeking a Multi-County Litigation ("MCL") designation in Middlesex County, New Jersey as to their claims (e.g., failure to warn, design defect, breach of warranty, and New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act) that their use of Ozempic and Wegovy, generically referred to as semaglutide, caused them to develop nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (“NAION”) (i.e., vision loss). Semaglutide is a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and more recently has been prescribed for the treatment of obesity.
NAION is caused by the “impaired circulation of blood to the front of the optic nerve.” According to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the “exact mechanism causing reduced blood flow to the optic nerve in NAION is not proven, but it is known that this condition occurs more often when a patient has conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.” Id.
The plaintiffs’ application for an MCL comes after recent studies addressed the correlation between semaglutide use and NAION:
- July 3, 2024 published study in the Journal of American Medical Association - Ophthalmology titled “Risk of Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy in Patients Prescribed Semaglutide” - the authors conducted a study to determine if the use of semaglutide was associated with an increased risk of NAION in patients with type 2 diabetes or patients who are overweight. See The authors found, after performing a “retrospective matched cohort study,” that those patients using semaglutide had a higher risk of developing NAION. Id.
- February 20, 2025 published study in the Journal of American Medical Association - Ophthalmology titled, “Semaglutide and Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy” - the authors researched whether using semaglutide is associated with NAION. The study suggested a “modest increase in the risk of NAION among individuals with” type 2 diabetes who used semaglutide.
- December 18, 2024 published study in the International Journal of Retina and Vitreous titled, “Once-weekly semaglutide doubles the five-year risk of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy in a Danish cohort of 424,152 persons with type 2 diabetes” - the authors found that among the 218 cohort members who used semaglutide once a week, sixty-seven developed NAION, leading the authors to conclude that the “use of once-weekly semaglutide more than doubles the risk of NAION, even when multiple other factors have been taken into account.”
In addition, the European Medicines Agency’s Safety Committee recently concluded that NAION is a “very rare side effect” of semaglutide use.
While we are unaware of any semaglutide-NAION related verdicts as of this update, we anticipate that semaglutide-related litigation in general will be a growing trend in state and federal courts. And it has the potential to be a new battleground for litigants and experts, with wide-ranging implications for New Jersey’s mass tort litigation practice due to the anticipated rulings stemming from N.J.R.E. 104 hearings on experts’ methodologies and opinions and extensive motion practice involving New Jersey’s medical and general causation standards. The New Jersey Supreme Court has not set a date by which it will render its decision on the NAION plaintiffs’ application, but we will continue to monitor this developing mass tort in New Jersey state courts.
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