The number of people in UK who have died after using weight-loss drugs in recent years has risen to 82, official figures have revealed.
Dozens of fatalities have a suspected link to increasingly popular jabs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, according to Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) statistics.
Medical experts told The i Paper that too little was known about the precise role of the drugs in these deaths to spark panic – calling for the MHRA to investigate further.
Health specialists said the number of fatalities were “concerning”, but still relatively low, making clear that weight-loss medication was safe under the right supervision.
MHRA data shared earlier this week showing that 22 deaths have a suspected link to the medications when they have been used for weight loss, up to the end of January 2025.
Another 60 deaths were linked with the use of the jabs to treat type 2 diabetes, according to the regulator.
Around 400 people are believed to have been hospitalised after taking the drugs used for obesity and diabetes.
However, the MHRA has made clear that the figures do not mean the drugs have necessarily caused deaths or hospitalisations – only that a reporter has a suspicion it may have been a factor.
The data on hospitalisations and deaths are gathered as part of the regulator’s “yellow card” scheme. It tallies all reports of adverse reactions to medicines so any worrying patterns can be spotted.
Reports on reactions to weight-loss jabs, known as GLP-1 agonists, have been gathered since 2019. Some 18 deaths have been linked to tirzepatide, which is sold as Mounjaro.
Another 29 deaths occurred after use of semaglutide – sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. And 35 other fatalities were associated with liraglutide, sold as Saxenda and Victoza.
Medical experts called for the MHRA to investigate the cases further to establish how big a factor the weight-loss drugs may have been in the deaths.
“It is concerning – it is quite a lot of deaths,” said Professor Alexander Miras, clinical professor of medicine at Ulster University on the 82 fatalities.
“Deaths being linked to weight-loss drugs doesn’t tell us much – but we need to more on how much the weight-loss drugs may be implicated in the deaths.”
Professor Miras added: “They should be investigating if there are any side effects that are new and that we don’t know about. At the moment, we don’t know if it’s necessary or unnecessary anxiety.”
Some patients taking the weight-loss jabs have experienced gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The most common risk affecting more than one in ten patients is gastrointestinal problems, like vomiting and diarrhoea. Less commonly, they are also associated with an increased risk of gastritis and pancreatitis.
Ozempic is not licensed in the UK as a weight loss treatment, only for treating type 2 diabetes. But is has sometimes been prescribed “off-label” – not the approved use – as a weight loss treatment.
This is not illegal, so long as the patient’s condition and medical history are considered by a prescribing clinician.
Health experts are worried it is too easy to buy black-market jabs sold on social media. They have warned some Britons – possibly influenced by celebrities – may be using them without a proper prescription.
In October Northumbria Police arrested two women after the death of a woman in Sunderland who had taken a suspected “unauthorised” weight-loss drug.
It followed the death of North Lanarkshire nurse Susan McGowan after she had been taking Mounjaro believed to have been bought through an online pharmacy.
Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said she was “concerned” by fatality figures linked to weight-loss jabs. She said she would welcome “further investigation by the MHRA to better understand any potential risks”.
However, Professor Naveed Sattar, a heart specialist at the University of Glasgow, warned against “making too much of these figures”. He added: “It’s a link to weight-loss drugs, but it’s not been established that they are the cause of death.”
“There may be something to learn [for the MHRA] by looking into the cases in more detail. It may be the way people are getting the drugs is not optimal, not appropriate,” said Professor Sattar.
“These are relatively small numbers, when you consider we may have tens of thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands using these drugs [in the UK]. Sadly, some may have died given the considerable risk factors involved in their conditions.”
Some studies have shown that weight-loss medications may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Dr Alison Cave, the MHRA’s chief safety officer, said a report of an adverse reaction, hospitalisation or death “does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have”.
She added: “Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, or the events could be coincidental.”
Dr Cave said relatively new medicines such as weight-loss drugs “are more intensively monitored to ensure that any new safety issues are identified promptly”.
She added: “On the basis of the current evidence, the benefits of GLP-1 RAs [weight-loss drugs] outweigh the potential risks when used for the licensed indications.”
Manufacturers of the weight-loss jabs say they have been extensively trialed and examined before being made available to patients and any reported side effects are closely monitored.
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic, Wegovy, Saxenda and Victoza, said the safety of the jabs had been “extensively examined in robust clinical development programmes” and “real world evidence studies”.
They added: “Patient safety is of the utmost importance to Novo Nordisk. We continuously collect safety data on our marketed GLP-1 RA medicines and work closely with the authorities to ensure patient safety.”
A spokesperson for Lilly UK, which manufactures Mounjaro, said patient safety was the company’s “top priority”, saying confidence in the drug was based on “our extensive clinical trial programme”.
They added: “We actively monitor, evaluate, and report safety information for all our medicines to the UK MHRA and encourage healthcare professionals and others to do so via the MHRA yellow card adverse event reporting process.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said weight-loss drugs could be “game-changers in tackling obesity”, but also warned that “they’re not a quick fix to lose a few pounds”.
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