{"id":146750,"date":"2025-11-21T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146750\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:16:09","slug":"denmark-compensates-four-over-vision-loss-linked-to-ozempic-wegovy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146750\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark compensates four over vision loss linked to Ozempic, Wegovy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

\nMore than 40 people in Denmark have sought reimbursement after they said they had developed a serious eye condition as a result of using Ozempic or Wegovy.
\nPhoto: Ida Marie Odgaard \/ Ritzau Scanpix via AFP\n<\/p>\n

Four people in Denmark who developed serious eye conditions after using popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs<\/a> Wegovy and Ozempic are entitled to compensation, an independent body has ruled.<\/p>\n

More than 40 people had sought reimbursement after they said they had developed a serious eye condition as a result of using one of the drugs, both made by Novo Nordisk, according to the Danish Patient Compensation association.<\/p>\n

The condition — NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy) — is a lack of blood supply to the optic nerve, which can lead to a loss of vision.<\/p>\n

The association said that it had ruled on five cases so far, and found four people who merited compensation.<\/p>\n

“It’s unfortunate for the patients who have been affected by the side effect. NAION is a serious condition that causes permanent and incurable damage to vision,” the association’s director, Karen-Inger Bast, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Bast added that the cases were difficult to assess given that it was new medicine and the patients were already at increased risk of developing NAION.<\/p>\n

In total, the four patients would receive 800,000 kroner (NZ$220,456), but the association noted that the amount could increase depending on the impact the condition could have on their lives going forward — for instance, if it affects their ability to work.<\/p>\n

Medical compensation in Denmark is generally paid out by health authorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Danish Medicines Agency asked a European medical watchdog to review a Danish study that showed a link between semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — and NAION.<\/p>\n

In June, that watchdog — the PRAC (Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee) — concluded that NAION was a “very rare” side effect of semaglutide, affecting up to 1 in 10,000 users.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk said it had reviewed the decision by the Danish Patient Compensation.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to AFP, the drugmaker noted that following PRAC’s findings, patient leaflets for all semaglutide products had been updated to include NAION as a “very rare” reaction to the drugs.<\/p>\n

But it said the “benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains favorable”.<\/p>\n

– AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 40 people in Denmark have sought reimbursement after they said they had developed a serious eye…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[48,47,134,524,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-146750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-podcasts","17":"tag-public-radio","18":"tag-radio-new-zealand","19":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}