EU regulator to review reports of suicidal thoughts and weight loss drugs

London: A European Medicines Agency committee will this week hold a meeting related to its probe into reports of suicidal thoughts after taking diabetes and weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, an agenda showed on Monday.

The agency began its review into the class of weight loss and diabetes drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, last July after Iceland's health regulator flagged three cases of patients thinking about suicide or self-harm after using Novo's drugs – diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Saxenda.

The list of drugs the EU regulator was looking into includes Novo's Rybelsus, Saxenda and Victoza and Xultophy, apart from Ozempic and Wegovy.

A preliminary review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January this year found no such link. Still, it warned it could not definitively rule out a small risk due to limited data.

GLP-1 receptor agonists, originally developed to help control blood sugar in patients with diabetes, also slow digestion and reduce hunger.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)