NEW YORK — Todd Engel, a 63-year-old Maryland man, says the vision in his right eye went dark on New Year’s Eve 2024, and that by the time his left eye failed about ten months later he was legally blind.
He blames Ozempic. Engel, a heavy equipment operator and truck driver for Howard County Highways, was first prescribed the drug in 2023 for type 2 diabetes. Doctors diagnosed non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION, a loss of blood flow to the optic nerve that he was told was an “eye stroke.” His blood work and blood pressure were normal, his wife, Shelley, says, and testing found no other common risk factor.
Engel has sued Novo Nordisk, alleging the company failed to warn patients and doctors about vision loss. He is one of hundreds of patients pursuing similar claims against makers of GLP-1 drugs, according to Fox News, and a causal link has not been definitively established.
The argument rests on a regulatory gap. In June 2025 the European Medicines Agency’s safety committee concluded that NAION is a very rare side effect of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, affecting up to 1 in 10,000 people. It estimated roughly one extra case per 10,000 person-years of treatment and about double the risk in adults with type 2 diabetes. Patients who lose sight suddenly are told to contact a doctor without delay.
Attorney Jonathan Orent, who represents the Engels, said the aim is “a warning on the U.S. Ozempic label” like the one given to European patients and doctors. “It’s about information,” he said, as Fox News reported.
Novo Nordisk says the suits fail. It told Fox News it believes the personal injury lawsuits are “without merit” and that a causal relationship between GLP-1 drugs and NAION “cannot be confirmed.” The company points to placebo-controlled trials that found very few confirmed cases and no increase among semaglutide patients.
Engel kept taking the drug because neither he nor his doctors knew of a possible link, he said, and stopped immediately after his second eye went. He did not go blind, he said, but “had my vision taken from me.” TEH’s earlier explainer on GLP-1 medications and eye health sets out the same rare risk.
Two things remain unresolved. Fox’s account carries no statement from the FDA, and TEH could not confirm the current wording of the U.S. Ozempic label. And whether one sentence on a label would have changed what happened in 2023 is the question underneath every one of these cases.
