Tirzepatide, available as Mounjaro, has been hailed as the ‘King Kong’ of slimming jabs and a breakthrough in the war on obesity — more effective for shifting the pounds than similar drugs like Ozempic.
But there have been growing concerns about misleading statements on the medications’ safety and risk of severe injuries, including stomach paralysis and gallbladder issues.
Now, the drug is attracting fresh attention after the UK’s first death officially linked to the blockbuster weight loss jab came to light.
Susan McGowan, a 58 year-old nurse from Lanarkshire, died from multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after taking two low-dose injections of tirzepatide.
She took the jabs for a two-week period before her death on September 4. It is thought to be the first time the medicine has been listed as a contributing factor on a death certificate.
Like all drugs, Mounjaro is not without side-effects.
Yet speaking to MailOnline, others have come forwards to share how the jab has wrecked their lives, with one patient no longer able to even eat solid foods.
Susan McGowan, 58, from Lanarkshire, died from multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after taking two low-dose injections of tirzepatide
She took the jabs for a two-week period before her death on September 4. It is thought to be the first death officially linked to drug in the UK. Pictured with her niece Jade Campbell (right)
There have been growing concerns about misleading statements on the drugs’ safety and risk of severe gastrointestinal injury, including stomach paralysis and gallbladder issues
Meredith Hotchkiss, a nurse from Meridian, Idaho in the US, said she will now likely be tube fed for the rest of her life, after taking the injection for just a matter of weeks.
The 56-year-old who said the jab had ‘devastated’ her life is one hundreds of patients who have joined a a multi-state US lawsuit against the drugmakers of Mounjaro and another weight loss jab Ozempic.
Thousands more patients who also suffered extreme side-effects are expected to join the legal action as it progresses, lawyers say.
Pharmaceutical firms PharmEli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are accused of failing to warn patients or physicians about certain side-effects caused by the drugs.
Both companies have said they will ‘vigorously defend against these claims’ and deny the allegations in the lawsuits.
Ms Hotchkiss was diagnosed with gastroparesis — a condition also known as stomach paralysis — after using Mounjaro and Trulicity, another Eli Lilly weight-loss drug, according to the filing.
She told MailOnline: ‘I’m angry. When you look at the side effects, it doesn’t say gastroparesis.
‘I wasn’t told gastroparesis by my doctor. And you see [the companies] just pushing these meds, even Weight Watchers as a program, they are pushing these medications.
Meredith Hotchkiss, a nurse from Meridian, Idaho in the US, said she will now likely be tube fed for the rest of her life, after taking the injection for just a matter of weeks. Pictured, with husband James
The 56-year-old who said the jab had ‘devastated’ her life is one hundreds of patients who have joined a a multi-state US lawsuit against the drugmakers of Mounjaro and another weight loss jab Ozempic
‘It scares me that you don’t know the long-term effects and you don’t know how people will react to it.’
She was prescribed Mounjaro from July 2022 until around June 2023 and also briefly a similar medication called Trulicity, between December 2022 to March 2023.
She has diabetes but said the condition is ‘well-controlled’ and the drugs were given off-label for weight loss.
‘The doctor told me that I could lose weight and that it works really well. He said that I would get really sick for four weeks and then after four weeks I’d feel a lot better,’ she added.
After four weeks using Mounjaro, Ms Hotchkiss was ‘bloated, not very hungry’.
She briefly paused use of the drug due to issues with insurance but restarted in early 2023 and paired it with a ‘whole food, plant-based diet’.
However, she found she ‘just couldn’t eat anything but cottage cheese, or macaroni and cheese or yogurt’.
She said: ‘In April [2023], I went to [a gastroenterologist], and he said I had terrible gastritis and duodenitis [inflammation in the small intestine] and everything was inflamed.
She has diabetes but said the condition is ‘well-controlled’ and the drugs were given off-label for weight loss
‘He did a gastric emptying study and it showed that I had the most severe form of gastroparesis.’
Ms Hotchkiss was fitted with a central line, a tube into a vein to administer nutrition directly into the bloodstream, along with tubes to her stomach and small intestine.
She has not eaten a proper meal since February 2023 she said, and now relies on the feeding tube.
Ms Hotchkiss has also since been hospitalised three times for complications relating to her digestive condition.
The side-effects have changed her life and stopped her from doing the things she loves. Doctors have also told her she can no longer travel overseas because of her health conditions.
‘I can’t swim, I can’t go in the water. I love swimming, I have a boat, I can’t go in the water at all. I used to love swimming in the ocean,’ she said.
‘It affects me socially, because you go out with your friends and what do you do? You go out to dinner, or you go to barbecues… all the holidays, everything revolves around food.
‘The other thing I worry about is will I be alive long enough to pay off the house with my husband, because I worry about him.’
Experts are not yet clear on the exact link between the medicines, collectively known as GLP-1 agonists, after the appetite-suppressing hormone they trigger, and stomach paralysis.
But they believe it may be due to how the drugs affect the autonomic nervous system, which regulates how the digestive tract works.
If the stomach takes too long to empty its contents, food can form solid hardened masses called bezoars, triggering gastroparesis, when the stomach is unable to properly digest food.
In another lawsuit, filed in August 2023 against Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Jaclyn Bjorklund said she also suffered several injuries from Mounjaro and Ozempic, including stomach paralysis.
Jaclyn Bjorklund starting taking Ozempic in the spring of 2022.
She switched to Mounjaro in July 2023 after over a year of severe stomach problems such as severe, violent vomiting. But the switch, she claimed, did not make a difference.
She is suing both manufacturers for failing to warn of the risk of severe gastrointestinal issues.
In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which polices the safety of drugs used in Britain, warns Mounjaro side effects could include nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting — which usually goes away over time — and constipation.
Deaths in America linked to semaglutide and tirzepatide by year. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy while tirzepatide is used in drugs including Zepbound. Yellow is used for 2024 to indicate the data is incomplete
One case report published in August also found an obese American man was left in excruciating pain and forced to attend the emergency room after Mounjaro left him suffering an overactive thyroid
People taking the drug outside clinical trials have also reported experiencing hair loss while taking Mounjaro.
And there has also been a suggested link to an increased risk of cancer from the jab.
Last year, the European Medicines Agency said that research on rodents has suggested the artificial hormones packaged in tirzepatide could raise the risk of medullary thyroid cancer.
One case report published in August also found an obese American man was left in excruciating pain and forced to attend the emergency room after Mounjaro left him suffering an overactive thyroid.
The 62-year-old, who also had type 1 diabetes, lost more than 5.6 stone (36kg) in under six months on tirzepatide.
But after rushing to hospital with sudden palpitations, a fever and even hand tremors, scans showed he had developed an irregular heartbeat, atrial fibrillation, dubbed a ‘silent killer’.
Medics also discovered he had thyrotoxicosis — a condition in which the thyroid gland, responsible for metabolism and heart rate — malfunctions, with potentially life-threatening consequences.
Medics said atrial fibrillation was triggered by thyrotoxicosis following ‘rapid weight loss from tirzepatide’.
Scottish nurse, Ms McGowan, bought a prescription through a registered online pharmacy after looking into Mounjaro and seeking medical advice
Earlier this year it was revealed the MHRA had received reports of ten deaths linked to the use of weight loss jabs in the UK and 7,228 reports of nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea associated with the likes of Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Of these, 68 patients were admitted to hospital.
A reported death or adverse reaction does not necessarily mean it has been caused by the medicine, only that someone had a suspicion it may have been.
Underlying or concurrent illnesses and other medicines the patients may have been taken at the time of their death may be responsible and such events can also be coincidental.
Scottish nurse, Ms McGowan, bought a prescription through a registered online pharmacy after looking into Mounjaro and seeking medical advice.
Her niece Jade told the BBC: ‘Susan had always carried a wee bit of extra weight but there were never any health concerns. She wasn’t on any other medication. She was healthy.’
‘Susan was such a bubbly person. She was really generous, she was really kind and she was the life of the party – a huge personality. They said she had the biggest laugh in the hospital.’
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