Millions of Americans taking popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs may face double the risk of developing a vision-threatening eye condition, according to a major new study that tracked more than 1 million patients for three years.
The Risk in Context
The research, recently published in JAMA Ophthalmology, found that patients taking glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs)—which include Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus—had more than twice the risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), also known as “wet” AMD, a leading cause of blindness in older adults.While the relative risk doubled, the absolute numbers remain small: 0.2 percent of GLP-1 users developed the eye condition compared with 0.1 percent of nonusers over three years. This means that roughly 1 in 1,000 additional users might develop the condition. However, with millions of people taking these medications, that could affect thousands of people.
