An Australian woman died suddenly of a stomach bug in January, and now her husband is pointing the finger at popular weight loss drug Ozempic and calling for a larger investigation.
Trish Webster, 56, of Australia, has been taking the drug for five months and has lost 35 pounds in the process. However, her husband Roy told Australia’s 60 Minutes program she was experiencing serious side effects from the drug, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. At some point, she switched to another weight-loss drug, Saxenda.
He said his wife initially saw the drug on television and got a prescription from her doctor. Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy (also semaglutide) have become extremely popular in recent years, with everyone from Hollywood celebrities to everyday people looking to it for weight loss. Demand is so high that Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, Wegovy and Saxenda, is unsure when it will have enough supply to quell demand.
Roy said that while her symptoms were severe, he did not believe they could have contributed to her death.
“I couldn’t save her, that was the hardest part,” he said. “If I had known this was going to happen, she wouldn’t have accepted it…I never thought you would die from this,”
On January 16, Tracy collapsed at home.
“There was something brown coming out of her mouth and I realized she wasn’t breathing and started doing CPR,” Roy said. “The rain was pouring down and I rolled her over because she couldn’t breathe.”
She died later that night and the cause of death was listed as acute gastrointestinal illness. Also called gastroenteritis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this condition occurs when a person’s intestines become inflamed. It’s usually caused by a viral or bacterial infection in the stomach, not medications.
However, Roy called for a larger investigation and suggested the drug was responsible for his wife’s sudden death.
“You know, she shouldn’t have disappeared,” he said. “It’s just not worth it, it’s just not worth it.”
The drug’s manufacturer wrote in a statement to The Courier: “Patient safety is Novo Nordisk’s top priority. We take all reports of adverse events from the use of our drugs very seriously. However, We do not comment on individual patient cases.
“Novo Nordisk works closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to continuously monitor the safety profile of our medicines. “We support the safety and effectiveness of Ozempic when used as directed. “
Novo’s two blockbuster drugs make it one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and the largest company in Denmark. However, reports of severe stomach problems have emerged in recent years. The company and its main competitor, Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro, are facing lawsuits accusing them of causing stomach paralysis in users.