A woman who vomited so much after using Ozempic that she suffered a torn esophagus has joined a growing legal campaign with thousands of patients who claim the blockbuster drug caused horrendous side-effects.
Dina Fioretti, 60, from Illinois, has sued Novo Nordisk over claims Ozempic triggered extreme vomiting, pain and a blocked bowel. Her complaint alleges she developed a Mallory-Weiss tear, the medical term for a torn esophagus, because of the vomiting and spent a week in hospital.
Fioretti’s complaint,is included in a batch of nearly 60 lawsuits brought against the company by patients who suffered crippling stomach paralysis after using Ozempic.
Other cases include a woman who will suffer diarrhea forever after using Ozempic and a man whose intestine was partially removed after the drug allegedly caused life-threatening stomach paralysis.
Another woman previously said , she had her gallbladder removed because of the drug’s side effects .
The legal campaign against Novo Nordisk primarily includes patients who used Ozempic and Wegovy, another of the company’s drugs. Several suits have also been filed against Eli Lilly, which produces Mounjaro, a diabetes and weight loss drug which works in a similar way to Ozempic and Wegovy.
Patients claim they were not warned about the extreme side effects they suffered.
The growing legal action reached a milestone last month when a panel of judges agreed to centralize the lawsuits in a Pennsylvania federal court.
This new multidistrict litigation (MDL), which is similar to a class action lawsuit, includes patients from across the United States.
Attorney Ken Moll, president of Moll Law Group, which filed Fioretti’s complaint, said his firm plans to add a further 100 cases to the litigation – and is one of several across the country investigating claims by thousands more patients.
Paul Pennock, an attorney at Morgan & Morgan who is playing a lead role in the action, said in a statement that he expects up to 10,000 cases will be filed in the litigation.
Moll said it was ‘unconscionable’ that the firms still hadn’t added warnings to their labels which warn about the risk of gastroparesis and stomach paralysis.
Fioretti’s lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Fioretti’s lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of linois on January 25. The complaint states that she used Ozempic for diabetes and weight loss from
July 2021 until January 2022.
The drug is blamed for causing Fioretti to suffer from ileus, which stops food from moving through the stomach. The ordeal led to ‘sustained severe personal injuries, pain, suffering, and emotional distress’.
Moll said: ‘She went to the hospital, she had a bowel obstruction and developed a tear in her throat from vomiting.
‘She had a small procedure to correct the bowel obstruction.The ordeal led to ‘sustained severe personal injuries, pain, suffering, and emotional distress’.
Moll said: ‘She went to the hospital, she had a bowel obstruction and developed a tear in her throat from vomiting.
‘She had a small procedure to help her with that tear. She was hospitalized for about a week.
‘In her case she had to get rid of the contents of her stomach and intestines, so she was throwing up and it caused a tear in her throat.’
Fioretti required an upper endoscopy, which involves inserting a tube into the throat to examine the esophagus and stomach. She was also treated with adrenaline and a underwent a ‘lengthy hospitalization requiring medications to alleviate bleeding, vomiting, and abdominal pain’, the lawsuit added.
The complaint alleges that Novo Nordisk ‘did not adequately warn’ about the risks side effects including ileus and stomach paralysis.
Moll added: ‘It’s just unbelievable and it’s so common and very life-threatening. We have a gentleman who was using it, he had 90% [bowel] obstruction, and develop gangrene.
‘He had his intestines partially removed. It was just a terrible situation. And it’s so common. It’s unbelievable that there hasn’t been an update to the warnings by these manufacturers.’
Many of the lawsuits included in the nationwide litigation refer to Novo Nordisk’s ‘aggressive’ marketing of Ozempic and Mounjaro. The firm has spent more than $1 billion advertising the drugs.
‘Unfortunately, this is the type of drug [that] the amount of money that these companies are making is just going up and up every month. Just getting bigger and bigger. It’s too profitable for them to stop,Moll said.
Novo Nordisk said it believes the allegations in the lawsuits are ‘without merit’ and that the company will ‘vigorously defend against these claims’.
Eli Lilly said ‘patient safety is Lilly’s top priority’ and also added that it will ‘vigorously defend against these claims’.
The multidistrict litigation currently includes at least 55 lawsuits. US District Judge Gene E Pratter will oversee the litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Novo Nordisk has supported the multidistrict litigation but Eli Lilly objected to its inclusion because it is a defendant in only about a fifth of the cases. Judges ultimately decided complaints against both companies can be grouped together.
Cameron Stephenson, an attorney at Levin Papantonio Rafferty, told DailyMail.com in January that his firm currently has around 100 clients who were diagnosed with gastroparesis after using the drugs, and it is investigating 1,000 more.
Stephenson said he had ‘no doubt’ that thousands of cases would be added to the MDL over time.
Ozempic has FDA approval for the treatment of type 2 diabetes but has been prescribed off-label for weight loss to millions of Americans.
Peoplesmind