People Are Reporting Ozempic Overdoses

Poison control centers are increasingly fielding calls related to semaglutide, the injected diabetes medication that has surged in popularity as a weight loss drug. CNN reports that over the January to November period, America's Poison Centers logged 3,000 calls involving what is sold as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss; that's a 1,500% surge since 2019. Only 6% of those calls involved an additional substance or substances.

The lion's share of the calls were related to dosing issues, says Dr. Kait Brown of America's Poison Centers. "Oftentimes, it's a person who maybe accidentally took a double dose or took the wrong dose," which can cause severe nausea and vomiting. Some cases led to hospitalizations, where IV fluids and medications typically resolved the symptoms. CNN explains a supply shortage led some users to seek compounded versions of semaglutide; these can deviate from the patented form by containing semaglutide salts.

While poison control centers say they're unable to determine whether a call is related to patented or compounded semaglutide based on the symptoms, Brown says some state poison center directors have indicated they think compounded versions are driving a good number of the calls. To wit, an article published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association looked at a trio of cases of adverse drug events involving semaglutide for weight loss. "One patient reported dosing in milliliters and units rather than in milligrams," they wrote, while pointing out "vials of compounded semaglutide do not use safety features provided by prefilled manufactured pens and allow for large overdoses (e.g., 10-fold dosing errors)."