The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that most people have been overdosing on the weight-loss injection Ozempic.
According to US News, the FDA stated in an alert, “Dosing errors have resulted from patients measuring and self-administering incorrect doses of the drug and health care providers miscalculating doses of the drug.”
FDA explained, “The majority of the reports described patients mistakenly drawing up more than the prescribed dose from a multiple-dose vial during self-administration. In these instances, patients administered five to 20 times more than the intended dose of semaglutide.”
FDA revealed that most of the reports showed that people even did not know how to measure the dose with the syringe.
The agency urged, “FDA encourages health care providers and compounders to provide patients with the appropriate syringe size for the intended dose and counsel patients on how to measure the intended dose using the syringe.”
FDA further added, “Additionally, health care providers should be vigilant when prescribing and administering compounded semaglutide, as there may be different concentrations available. If uncertain, health care providers should contact the compounder about calculating the correct dose of medication to prescribe or administer.”
The agency also said that an overdose of the compounded semaglutide can cause severe nausea, hypoglycemia, dehydration, vomiting, migraine, headache, pancreatitis, fainting, and gallstones.
