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FDA report analysis · eight GLP-1 brands

How serious are the reports on GLP-1 drugs?

Reports marked serious make up 57% of Saxenda reports and 8.9% of Zepbound reports. These shares describe the submitted reports. They cannot rank the drugs by safety or show your chance of a serious event.

Source for this answer

Source: FDA side-effect reports, read 2026-08-17

Source: FDA side-effect reports, read 2026-08-17

Serious has a fixed meaning here. FDA marks a report serious when it records a death, a stay in hospital, or a life-threatening event. Lasting damage, a birth defect, or anything a doctor judged as grave counts too.

It is a property of the report, not of the drug. One product can look five times as serious as another because different people file about it. This page is mostly about how that happens.

Across FDA reports

Products in the table

8

With a seriousness split

8

Reports counted

401,158

Highest — Saxenda

57%

What share of each product’s FDA reports were marked serious

Each row shows one brand’s FDA reports, split by whether FDA marked them serious. Deaths and hospital stays are shown beside the total because percentages can hide large differences in report volume.

◆ Serious reports — share of each product’s own reportsShare of that product’s reports
8Exact values — 8 rows in the data table
Serious reports — share of each product’s own reports
ProductShare of that product’s reports
Saxendaliraglutide57% of Saxenda reports
Rybelsussemaglutide56% of Rybelsus reports
Ozempicsemaglutide49% of Ozempic reports
Victozaliraglutide47% of Victoza reports
Wegovysemaglutide45% of Wegovy reports
Trulicitydulaglutide26% of Trulicity reports
Mounjarotirzepatide26% of Mounjaro reports
Zepboundtirzepatide8.9% of Zepbound reports

Every row is measured, so there are no ceilings on this chart. Read from FDA on 2026-08-17.

Each product’s total reports, serious-report share, and reports recording hospitalization or death
ProductAll reportsMarked seriousStay in hospitalDeath recorded
Saxendaliraglutide10,040 reports57% of Saxenda reports2,456 reports290 reports
Rybelsussemaglutide7,379 reports56% of Rybelsus reports1,690 reports174 reports
Ozempicsemaglutide66,161 reports49% of Ozempic reports12,871 reports1,114 reports
Victozaliraglutide44,086 reports47% of Victoza reports9,836 reports1,694 reports
Wegovysemaglutide21,044 reports45% of Wegovy reports2,645 reports123 reports
Trulicitydulaglutide88,332 reports26% of Trulicity reports10,807 reports1,696 reports
Mounjarotirzepatide93,975 reports26% of Mounjaro reports8,667 reports772 reports
Zepboundtirzepatide70,141 reports8.9% of Zepbound reports2,430 reports176 reports

The death column counts reports marked death in which the drug was named. It does not establish that the drug caused the death. The reports have not been verified as a count of people killed by treatment.

Every share above is a share of that product’s own reports. It is never a share of the people who took it, because nobody knows how many that is. Two products can differ here for reasons that have nothing to do with either drug.

The same drug, twice, at two very different numbers

Mounjaro and Zepbound both contain tirzepatide. Mounjaro’s serious-report share is more than twice Zepbound’s. That is a finding about reports, not proof of what caused the difference.

Sharing an ingredient does not make two sets of reports comparable. The people treated, reasons for treatment, doses and reporting patterns may differ. These totals do not control for those factors.

The largest serious-report share is more than five times the smallest across these eight brands. The size of that gap does not identify its cause. Without the number of people treated and a comparable follow-up period, these shares cannot estimate patient risk.

What may affect the share of serious reports

Reports can come from patients, healthcare professionals and manufacturers. Their reasons for submitting reports may differ. This table does not break the results down by reporter type.

A larger number of non-serious reports lowers the serious share even if the serious count stays the same. A change in the share therefore does not, on its own, show a change in treatment safety.

Time on the market and publicity can influence reporting. The snapshot does not show that an older product’s users are older or sicker, or quantify the effect of any reporting difference.

A report marked death records a reported outcome while the drug was named. It does not establish that the drug caused the death. These totals should not be read as verified counts of deaths caused by treatment.

What the labels say about it

Labels describe warnings and trial results. A trial’s event percentage counts affected participants out of the study group. Read it with the dose, population and follow-up period that produced it.

Trials and FDA reports answer different questions. A trial follows selected people for a fixed period; voluntary reports show what was submitted after wider use, with all the reporting bias that implies.

This section summarizes reports people filed. The label guides show what the FDA-approved prescribing information lists. The two answer different questions: what was reported after use, and what was observed in studies.

What this page does and does not establish

A serious event recorded in a report is not proof that the named drug caused it.

What each claim is supported by in the report data
The claimWhat the evidence shows
The serious share varies hugely between GLP-1 brandsEstablished. The top row is more than five times the bottom one.
The same ingredient proves the difference is only reporting biasNot established. Mounjaro and Zepbound share an ingredient, but these totals do not account for differences in patients, treatment or reporting.
The brands at the top are more dangerousNot established. The number of people treated is not available here, and reporting may differ between brands.
A death count is a count of people killed by the drugNot established, and FDA says so itself. A report records that a death occurred while the drug was named.
You can compare these numbers to a trial’sNot as equivalent rates. A trial counts events among enrolled participants; this table counts events among submitted reports.

Common questions

Can these drugs kill you?

Every product here has reports marked death. These are submitted reports, not independently verified counts of people killed by a drug. They do not establish cause.

The labels carry the warnings that come from trials, where cause can be studied. Those product sources are linked at the foot of this page and can be reviewed with a clinician.

Why does the newest brand look safest?

The data cannot establish why its share is lower. Time on the market and reporting patterns may contribute, but this table does not measure their individual effects.

A low share only describes the submitted FDA reports. It is not proof that a product is safer.

Should this change what I do?

These report shares cannot tell you whether to change treatment. Use them to understand what was reported, and discuss your own benefits, symptoms and concerns with your clinician.

Where to go next

This page is one question asked of one snapshot. The pages below answer the neighboring ones from the labels and the trials, which is a different kind of evidence.

Every question in this section is listed on the report-stream questions index.

Read this before quoting anything above

These are counts of reports filed with the FDA, not rates among people treated. This data does not count everyone who used the drug, and a report does not establish that the drug caused the event.

  • No count of everyone treated. FAERS counts submitted reports, not everyone who used a drug. Each percentage here divides an event count by the drug’s report total. It describes a share of reports, not a share of people treated or their chance of an event.
  • A report is not proof the drug did it. FDA does not require proof that a drug caused an event before accepting a report. The drug, an illness or another factor may be involved. A report naming both a drug and an event does not establish the cause.
  • A bigger number can just mean a more-prescribed drug. More reports can simply mean that more people use the drug, that it is newer, or that it receives more news and legal attention. Raw report totals do not tell you which drug is safer.
  • The same event can be counted twice. One event can reach FAERS through more than one channel — the patient, the prescriber and the manufacturer can all file. FDA does not guarantee that the public files are de-duplicated.
  • FDA’s own words. Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. While we make every effort to ensure that data is accurate, you should assume all results are unvalidated. We may limit or otherwise restrict your access to the API in line with our Terms of Service.
  • Retrieved 2026-08-17 from https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json · FDA data last updated 2026-07-30 · license https://open.fda.gov/license/

How everything on this site is sourced →

10primary sources, each with the day we read it — open the documents used on this page