EMA Elevates Thyroid Cancer Safety Signal for Novo Nordisk's Semaglutide-Containing Drugs Ozempic and Wegovy

Intelligent Finance APP learned that Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) said on Thursday that the EU drug regulatory agency raised the safety signal for thyroid cancer of several of the company's drugs last month, including semaglutide, the active ingredient in the company’s popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. It was reported that raising the safety signal by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is a method to monitor potential adverse events associated with approved drugs. This move does not mean that the drug is the cause of any adverse event reports.

Lars Otto Andersen-Lange, Director of Media Relations at Novo Nordisk, stated: "Novo Nordisk has recognized the EMA's safety signals and requirements and will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all relevant data to clarify this issue." He noted that in a statement last month, the EMA raised the safety signal concerning thyroid cancer for several GLP-1 class drugs, including semaglutide. However, the "causal relationship" between semaglutide and thyroid cancer has not been confirmed in large-scale clinical trials or post-marketing surveillance.