More than 100 deaths in Britain have now been linked to blockbuster weight loss jabs, official data shows.
Two of the victims were people in their 20s, according to a MailOnline analysis of logs kept by the medicine safety watchdog.
Of the 107 fatalities reported by doctors and patients, the vast majority involve slimming jabs approved within the last few years, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic.
The findings come as the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)confirmed that at least 10 people in the UK using the injections had died from pancreatitis; a life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas.
Officials announced last night that they are now investigating if the condition is more likely to strike some patients with specific genes.
It comes just months after the death of 58 year-old Scottish nurse Susan McGowan who suffered multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after just two doses of Mounjaro—the so-called ‘King Kong’ of weight loss jabs.
Ms McGowan is currently the only named fatality linked to the jabs in the UK.
However, medics have told of a wave young women requiring life-saving A&E treatment after obtaining the drugs privately from online pharmacies.
In the majority of these cases, the victims had no weight-related health problems but were using the drugs for cosmetic reasons. Some were not even overweight.
Of the 107 deaths recorded by the MHRA the majority were linked to a weight-loss jab called liraglutide, with 37 fatalities since 2010.
This drug—sold under the brand Saxenda—works similar to the more famous brands Wegovy and Mounjaro and is approved as a weight loss drug in the UK.
The vast majority of fatalities linked to the drug were among the over 50s, though two were recorded in patients in their 20s.
Semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—and tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro, had an equal number of linked fatalities with 30 apiece.
However, Mounjaro has reached this total much faster, with 30 reports linking it to deaths in just a year-and-half.
Semaglutide has taken five-and-half-years to reach this number of linked fatalities.
Mounjaro has been dubbed the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss jabs due to its potency, helping people lose up to a fifth of their body weight in a year.
Twelve other deaths were recorded for similar drugs—collectively known as ‘GLP-1′ injections—but which are approved solely for use in treating diabetes.
Weight loss injections work by mimicking natural appetite suppressing hormones to make people feel fuller, helping them lose weight.
All deaths were logged under the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) ‘Yellow Card’ scheme.
The system—set-up in the wake of the 1960s thalidomide scandal—allows officials to track potential adverse reactions to medications approved for use in the UK and spot emerging patterns.
Every drug approved for us in the UK has to go through safety trials before being made available to the public.
But there is an unavoidable risk that rare reactions or interactions with other illnesses and conditions may have been missed, which is where the Yellow Card system comes in.
If a worrying pattern emerges it can lead to drugs’ approval being reviewed, having new warnings added to the labels or the medication potentially being taken off the market completely.
As anyone can use the system—patients as well as their medics—a death being linked to a specific drug is not proof it was responsible.
The MHRA highlights that some reactions—including fatal ones—may simply be coincidence.
For example, a patient taking a weight loss jab may experience a fatal heart attack, but the event may have nothing to do with the drug they were taking at the time.
Last night the MHRA said it had received more than 560 reports of patients developing an inflamed pancreas from taking GLP-1 injections since they first launched.
While these drugs are frequently used for weight management, some like Ozempic are primarily licensed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Of the 10 linked pancreatitis fatalities, five were connected to Mounjaro.
Scientists aren’t completely clear on why GLP-1 drugs can trigger deadly pancreatitis.
However, experts suspect the reaction is caused by how the drugs interact with the pancreas by triggering it to release the hormone insulin, helping to stabilise blood sugars.
Scientists say in some cases this may ‘overstimulate’ cells in the organ—putting excess strain on it—and causing the pancreas to become severely inflamed.
The MHRA is now calling for users who are admitted to hospital with pancreatitis to report the side effect to authorities using the regulator’s Yellow Card scheme.
Healthcare workers can also submit a report on patients’ behalf.
Such patients will then be contacted by the MHRA to ask them to take part in a new study, to see if they have a gene that makes them at higher risk of pancreatitis while taking the drugs.
The ultimate aim is to create a test that will enable medics to find if a patient has these pancreatitis-risk genes before they prescribe the drugs.
Patient safety leaflets distributed with Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Saxenda all acknowledge pancreatitis as a potential rare reaction to taking the drug.
The main symptom of pancreatitis is severe pain in the stomach that radiates to the back and does not go away.
Anyone who experiences this should seek immediate medical help.
Ms McGowan—the only named fatality from using weight loss jabs in the UK—took Mounjaro, for a two-week period before her death on September 4 last year.
Just days after taking the drug, she started having severe stomach pains and went to A&E at the hospital she worked at, University Hospital Monklands in Airdrie, Scotland.
Although her colleagues fought to save her, she died shortly after.
Her death certificate listed multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis as the immediate cause of death but added the prescribed use of tirzepatide as a factor.
The MHRA’s announcement comes a day after experts issued guidance to GPs to look for two life-threatening conditions that can be triggered by weight loss jabs acute pancreatitis and biliary disease.
The advice tells doctors to look for signs of two life-threatening conditions that can be triggered by the drugs—acute pancreatitis and biliary disease.
Warnings over the potential side effects of taking weight-loss jabs come just as the Government makes it easier for Britons to take them.
From this week patients in England this week will be able Mounjaro, through their family doctor for the first time.
The weekly injection will be offered to around 220,000 people over the next three years under the new NHS prescribing rules.
Under previous regulations patients could only access Mounjaro on the NHS via a limited number of specialist weight loss clinics ran by the health service.
Recent estimates suggest that about 1.5 million people in the UK are taking weight loss jabs, many of which are bought privately due to NHS rationing.
Health officials have suggested that they can help to turn the tide on obesity but have stressed they are not a silver bullet and do come with side effects.
Most side effects linked to the jabs are gastrointestinal including nausea, constipation and diarrhoea.
However, the medical regulator recently warned that Mounjaro may make the oral contraceptive pill less effective in some patients.
A spokesperson for Lilly UK, the makers of Mounjaro, reacting to reports of deaths linked to the drug said patient safety is its ‘top priority’.
They added: ‘Regulatory agencies conduct extensive independent assessments of the benefits and risks of every new medicine and Lilly is committed to continually monitoring, evaluating, and reporting safety data.’
‘If anyone is experiencing side effects when taking any Lilly medicine, they should talk to their doctor or other healthcare professional.’
In the US, nearly 200 deaths have been linked to weight loss jabs.
Similar to the UK’s reporting system none of the deaths are proven to have been directly caused by the injections.
