But in rare cases, this class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists can come with a debilitating side effects. Chief among them is blindness, which as Reuters reports has prompted patients who lost their eyesight to file more than 70 lawsuits against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the two major drug companies behind Ozempic and Mounjaro, respectively. The lawsuits, in both federal and state courts, allege that these drugs gave patients a condition called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, in which blood flow to the optic nerve stops and causes a person to lose vision. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first GLP-1 agonist drug back in 2005 to treat diabetes. More on Ozempic: Scientists Find Evidence That Ozempic Can Reverse Aging