Ozempic-like drugs may make you more likely to go blind in your 50s, but risk remains low

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-01 01:00

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Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) - the class of drugs that includes Ozempic and Wegovy - may increase your risk of developing nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a leading cause of vision loss in people over 50, according to US scientists. They looked at the three-year risk of NAION among 588,168 US veterans with type 2 diabetes who took either GLP-1RAs or sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i). Over the three years, 39 people per 10,000 developed NAION. Compared with those on SGLT2is, people on GLP-1RAs were modestly more likely to develop the condition, and this link was consistent when the scientists used different definitions of NAION. The authors stress that the risk of NAION is still very small among people on GLP-1RAs, and they found no increased risk of a range of other eye conditions, including macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness for people over 50.