Ozempic Lawsuit: What the Court Records Show in 2026

The Ozempic lawsuit is not one case but thousands of personal injury claims combined in federal court. Most sit in multidistrict litigation (MDL) No. 3094 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, created in February 2024, where plaintiffs allege that GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly caused gastroparesis, ileus, intestinal blockage or other digestive injuries and that the companies did not warn adequately. A separate MDL, No. 3163, was created in December 2025 for claims of sudden vision loss from NAION. As of September 1, 2026, federal statistics listed 4,022 pending cases in the digestive MDL and 216 in the vision MDL. No trial verdict or court finding that the drugs caused these injuries had been reported in either MDL as of October 2026, and the companies dispute the claims.

Peptide Labs does not sell Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or any prescription drug, and this is not legal advice. This article summarizes public court records and drug labels. For the medical side, see our guides to GLP-1 medicine side effects and semaglutide side effects.

What is the Ozempic lawsuit about?

On February 2, 2024, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) centralized 18 lawsuits from 11 federal districts, plus 37 related cases, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Its decision says plaintiffs allege the drugs caused them to suffer gastroparesis, ileus, intestinal obstruction or pseudo-obstruction, or other gastrointestinal injury. The claims center on whether the manufacturers knew or should have known of these risks, whether they warned patients and doctors adequately, and whether their safety statements were misleading.

The first decision covered Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus (semaglutide, Novo Nordisk) and Trulicity and Mounjaro (Eli Lilly). The panel added Saxenda in December 2024, and the court has noted that the parties agree Victoza and Zepbound are included too, because they share active ingredients with Saxenda and Mounjaro. The case was first assigned to Judge Gene E. K. Pratter and is now before Judge Karen S. Marston.

An MDL is not a class action. Each person keeps an individual lawsuit; the MDL simply lets one judge handle shared pretrial questions, such as expert evidence, before cases go back to their home courts or are otherwise resolved.

GLP-1 lawsuit timeline

The Ozempic gastroparesis lawsuit and the testing ruling

Gastroparesis means the stomach empties too slowly without a blockage. Plaintiffs’ lawyers told the court they expected more than 95% of cases to allege it, so the judge decided early how such a diagnosis must be supported. In an August 2024 scheduling decision, the court agreed with the companies to take up shared issues first. The companies had proposed three: gastroparesis diagnostic testing, preemption and warnings, and general causation (whether the drugs can cause the injuries at all).

On August 15, 2025, Judge Marston excluded the plaintiffs’ experts on the first issue. Her opinion holds that anyone claiming drug-induced gastroparesis must have had a gastric emptying study, by scintigraphy, breath test or wireless motility capsule, properly performed at the time of diagnosis and confirming delayed emptying. The opinion notes that plaintiffs’ counsel had already accepted that such a test is needed for persistent gastroparesis, which most plaintiffs claim, and acknowledges that some plaintiffs will be unable to prove their diagnosis as a result.

The wider complaint describes other alleged harms, including cyclical vomiting, ileus, intestinal obstruction, gallbladder injury, vitamin deficiency and pancreatitis. Constipation is a common, usually manageable side effect and is different from a blockage; see our guide to constipation on Ozempic for the warning signs that separate them.

The Ozempic NAION lawsuit: a separate MDL

NAION (non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy) is a sudden loss of blood flow to the optic nerve that can cause permanent vision loss in one eye. On December 15, 2025, the JPML created MDL No. 3163 for 21 lawsuits in three districts alleging that Ozempic, Wegovy, Saxenda or Trulicity caused NAION. The claims are failure to warn, design defect and breach of warranty.

Eli Lilly had asked the panel to send the cases to the existing MDL. The panel instead created a separate MDL, assigned to the same judge, so that she can decide how closely to coordinate the two. Plaintiffs had asked for the District of New Jersey; the panel chose Pennsylvania because the same drugs, companies and largely the same lawyers are already there.

What the drug labels say

• Ileus and obstruction. The current Ozempic label (revised May 2026) lists ileus, intestinal obstruction and severe constipation including fecal impaction among postmarketing reports. The Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity labels list the same.
• Severe digestive reactions. GLP-1 labels carry a warning on severe gastrointestinal reactions and say the drugs are not recommended for people with severe gastroparesis. The Ozempic label marks this section as changed in October 2025, and Trulicity’s in March 2026.
• NAION. In June 2025 the European Medicines Agency’s safety committee recommended adding NAION to the product information for Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy as a very rare side effect, affecting up to 1 in 10,000 people. The 2026 U.S. labels we reviewed for Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity did not mention NAION.

A label change is a safety communication, not an admission of legal responsibility. Postmarketing reports come from voluntary reporting and, as the labels state, cannot reliably show how often a reaction happens or prove the drug caused it.

What the manufacturers argue

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dispute the claims. In the court record, they pushed for early rulings on diagnosis, on preemption and warnings (whether federal drug-labeling law bars some failure-to-warn claims), and on general causation, and they moved to exclude plaintiffs’ experts. Eli Lilly also opposed being joined in one MDL with Novo Nordisk, arguing the drugs have different molecules, labels and histories; the panel combined them anyway because the products share a mechanism of action.

Ozempic lawsuit status in October 2026

The JPML report dated September 1, 2026 listed 4,022 pending actions in MDL No. 3094, up from more than 2,400 cases cited in the August 2025 opinion, and 216 in MDL No. 3163. The court set briefing on the next two shared issues for May to August 2026 and scheduled an expert-evidence hearing for September 2026. As of early October 2026, no ruling on those issues appeared on the court’s MDL page, and no trial date or settlement had been announced in the court records we reviewed.

For current information, check the MDL pages of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the JPML’s statistics reports, which are public. Claims about deadlines, payouts or eligibility on advertising sites are not court findings.

Health questions come first

Do not stop or change a prescribed GLP-1 medicine because of news about litigation without talking to your prescriber. Get urgent care for severe or persistent belly pain, vomiting that will not stop, a swollen belly with no bowel movements or gas, or sudden vision loss in either eye. You can report a suspected side effect to the FDA MedWatch program. If you take dulaglutide, our guide to Trulicity side effects covers its label in detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Peptide Labs does not sell GLP-1 medicines or any prescription drug. This article is general information, not medical advice and not legal advice, and it does not recommend or refer readers to any lawyer. Court records change often; the court docket is the authoritative source.

Last reviewed October 2026.

Related guides: GLP-1 Side Effects: What Every GLP-1 Drug Label Warns About, Semaglutide Side Effects: What the Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus Labels Say, Ozempic Constipation: Why It Happens and When to Get Help.