The European Medicines Agency issued a warning on Friday for individuals taking weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound to inform their doctors prior to any scheduled surgery.
The agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) has recommended measures to reduce the risk of respiratory complications during surgery for patients using GLP-1 treatments.
GLP-1 drugs are a category of diabetes and weight loss medications that imitate a hormone regulating blood sugar and suppressing appetite. Leading the market for these medications is Novo Nordisk, which produces Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound.
The committee highlighted that patients on these drugs face risks of aspiration and pneumonia aspiration—conditions in which food or liquids are accidentally inhaled instead of being swallowed correctly—during anesthesia and deep sedation. These complications can also arise when stomach contents move back up the throat.
According to the PRAC, aspiration and pneumonia aspiration occur in between one in 900 to one in 10,000 general anesthesia procedures.
GLP-1 medications delay stomach emptying, meaning even if a patient fasts the night before surgery, there could still be food in their stomach at the time of the operation. This presents a “biologically plausible increased risk for aspiration,” according to the PRAC.
However, the committee was unable to establish a causal link between GLP-1 drugs and aspiration.
Despite this, the regulator recommends healthcare professionals consider the effects of GLP-1 medications when combined with anesthesia.
The commission also announced that product information for these drugs will be updated to include a warning about this risk.
In financial projections, Morgan Stanley analysts expect the global market for these drugs to reach $105 billion by 2030, up from $77 billion previously. The investment bank also anticipates that around 31.5 million people in the U.S., approximately 9% of the population, will be using these drugs by 2035.