Study confirms semaglutide link to increased, but ‘low,’ risk of NAION

A Danish-Norwegian cohort study on the use of semaglutide and risk of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION, a rare condition that causes sudden vision loss in one eye due to insufficient blood flow to the optic nerve, confirms that use of semaglutide is “associated to an increased risk of NAION, but also that the excess absolute risk is low,” the authors state in a transcript posted to MedRxiv, the preprint server for Health Sciences, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) semaglutide is a GLP-1 weight loss drug marketed as three separate brand name medications, Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus. Novo’s Wegovy competes with Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Zepbound. In Friday morning trading in New York, shares of Novo Nordisk are down 2.5% while Eli Lilly shares are down fractionally.