Poison control got 3,000 calls due to Ozempic overdoses this year

For the millions of Americans desperate to lose weight, semaglutide drugs like Ozempic have been a dream come true.

But for poison control centers, the popularity of semaglutide has been a nightmare.

From January through November of this year, America’s Poison Centers reported almost 3,000 calls involving semaglutide, an increase of more than 1,500% since 2019.

And most of the calls were related to dosage errors: “Often times, it’s a person who maybe accidentally took a double dose or took the wrong dose,” Dr. Kait Brown, clinical managing director of the association, told CNN.

Semaglutide was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2017 for people with diabetes. It’s now sold as Ozempic when used for diabetes, and Wegovy when used for weight loss.

The drug can cause side effects even when used as directed — these may include nausea, vomiting and constipation, especially when people first start using the drug.