Semaglutide and the other GLP-1 receptor agonists are among the most widely prescribed medicines in the country, taken by millions of people for type 2 diabetes and for weight loss. Researchers have now tied them to NAION — non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, an injury often described as a stroke of the optic nerve. Blood flow to the optic nerve is cut off, and the sight lost in the affected eye is generally permanent. A 2025 study in JAMA Ophthalmology examined patients who developed optic-nerve disorders while taking these drugs, most with NAION-like findings. Researchers at Harvard's Mass Eye and Ear reported that diabetic patients taking semaglutide were four times more likely to develop NAION, and that patients taking it for weight loss faced roughly seven times the risk.
In December 2025, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the federal vision-loss cases into MDL 3163 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, before Judge Karen S. Marston — a proceeding separate from the earlier MDL covering gastrointestinal injuries. New Jersey's state courts have likewise separated the vision claims from the gastrointestinal ones. The litigation is in early discovery, and no global settlement has been reached. The central allegation is that the manufacturers knew enough to warn patients and prescribing physicians about a risk of sudden, irreversible blindness — and did not.
If you lost your sight after taking a GLP-1 medication, the law provides a path to accountability.
