another 2026 JAMA Ophthalmology paper<\/a> on US veterans found the risk about doubled for new semaglutide users, but the total numbers were still tiny: 0.29% versus 0.13% after two years.<\/p>\nRegulators weigh in: What\u2019s their take?<\/p>\n
When is a risk too rare to matter? Regulators are starting to take these findings seriously. In 2025, the European Medicines Agency decided NAION should be added as a \u201cvery rare\u201d side effect for semaglutide and updated the drug info. The UK\u2019s regulator chimed in with safety updates and advice: if you suddenly lose vision while on semaglutide, get checked out by a specialist without any delay.Moreover, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society reviewed over 40 studies in 2026. Their bottom line: yes, semaglutide may double relative risk for NAION, but the condition itself is so rare, individual risk stays low. That\u2019s the key detail: doubling a tiny risk doesn\u2019t mean most people taking Ozempic are in danger.<\/p>\n
Why are so many lawsuits happening?<\/p>\n
This is where it gets interesting. Gillen\u2019s not alone. More and more patients claim GLP-1 drugs caused their vision loss and that drug makers failed to warn them. Novo Nordisk (Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus) and Eli Lilly (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are the main companies facing legal action.By late 2025, federal courts had bundled the vision-loss cases into a single multidistrict litigation in Philadelphia. Numbers keep going up: from 30 federal cases and 40+ state cases, now there are many more. Plaintiffs argue they should\u2019ve been warned; the companies say their drugs are safe and plan to fight the claims.<\/p>\n
Why is the science so tricky?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a messy overlap. Most folks taking GLP-1 drugs already grapple with diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and other NAION risk factors. That makes it tough for scientists to separate the effects of the drugs from the effects of underlying health.So, for now, the science stays cautious: there\u2019s a possible link between semaglutide and NAION, regulators are flagging it as rare, and NAION itself can be permanently devastating. But researchers haven\u2019t confirmed Ozempic caused Gillen\u2019s blindness, or that it causes blindness more broadly.Anyone using semaglutide who suddenly notices vision changes shouldn\u2019t wait and see what unfolds. The standard guidance stays the same: get medical attention without any delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"59-year-old dad claims Ozempic left him \u2018permanently blind\u2019 within days: What we know about vision loss due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,315952,315950,315951,84,377,315949,315954,48776,315953,315955],"class_list":["post-916316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-diabetes-medications-blindness","tag-edward-gillen-vision-loss","tag-glp-1-drug-lawsuits","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-naion-risk-semaglutide","tag-non-arteritic-anterior-ischemic-optic-neuropathy","tag-ozempic-side-effects","tag-semaglutide-vision-loss","tag-vision-loss-diabetes-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"59-year-old](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/59-yo-dad.jpg\" "\\"59-year-old")
59-year-old dad claims Ozempic left him \u2018permanently blind\u2019 within days: What we know about vision loss due to GLP-1 and the lawsuits Imagine being a father, about to hit the 60-year-old milestone, and all of a sudden, you lose out on your vision!Edward Gillen\u2019s world split apart in less than a week. The 59-year-old Massachusetts dad, who\u2019s been a lifelong softball coach, now says he\u2019s permanently blind after taking Ozempic, the diabetes drug, as reported by the New York Post. Back in May 2025, he noticed what looked like a harmless speck in his eye. That speck became a rapid cascade: his vision dropped off, and by June 1, he says, he was totally blind. Doctors finally nailed down the cause: non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), which is rare, untreatable, and basically results from a sudden loss of blood flow to the optic nerve.Gillen had been using Ozempic, which contains semaglutide, for about a year before this happened. He\u2019s joined hundreds of others in lawsuits against GLP-1 drug makers, claiming these medications caused their vision loss. But here\u2019s the thing: his lawsuit is an accusation, not proof. Scientific studies have found connections between semaglutide and NAION, but the jury is still out on whether Ozempic actually triggers blindness. The absolute risk, according to current research, stays pretty low.<\/p>\n