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Ozempic side effects, as its own label reports them
Ozempic’s label reports nausea in 20.3 of every 100 people on the 1 mg dose, and 15.8 on 0.5 mg, against 6.1 on placebo.
Source: Read from the Ozempic label, revision 06/2026
What matters first
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-12every number here is sourced
The two placebo-controlled diabetes trials
Read the placebo column first. Nearly everything below happens to some people on a dummy injection too, and the gap between the columns is the part the drug is answerable for.
Trial armsPlacebo: n = 262Ozempic 0.5 mg: n = 260Ozempic 1 mg: n = 261
| Side effect | Placebo | Ozempic 0.5 mg | Ozempic 1 mg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nausea | 6.1% | 15.8% | 20.3% |
| Vomiting | 2.3% | 5% | 9.2% |
| Diarrhea | 1.9% | 8.5% | 8.8% |
| Belly pain | 4.6% | 7.3% | 5.7% |
| Constipation | 1.5% | 5% | 3.1% |
The boxed warning: thyroid tumors in rodents
Ozempic carries the same boxed warning as every product in this family. Rats and mice given semaglutide grew thyroid C-cell tumors, and nobody knows whether people do. The label says the drug is not for anyone whose family has had medullary thyroid cancer, or who has the inherited condition MEN 2.
What does the label tell prescribers to watch for?
These sit above the table in the label, in the section reserved for the problems that are rare but matter most.
| Warning | What this label says about it |
|---|---|
| Pancreatitis | The label lists it among the reasons to stop. |
| Diabetic eye disease | This gets its own warning here, because the trial population had diabetes and 8.9 in 100 already had eye damage at the start. |
| Low blood sugar | The risk rises when Ozempic is taken with insulin or a sulfonylurea, and the label says those doses may need cutting. |
| Kidney injury | Usually after fluid loss from being sick or having diarrhea. |
| Severe stomach and gut problems | Added to the label in October 2025. |
| Gallbladder disease | Including gallstones and inflammation. |
| Serious allergic reactions | Including swelling of the face and throat. |
| Breathing in stomach contents under anesthetic | The label warns anesthetists that the stomach may not be empty. |
| Sharing a pen | The label warns that an Ozempic pen must never be shared, even with the needle changed, because of infection risk. |
What have people actually reported about Ozempic?
66,161 reports naming Ozempic have reached the FDA’s public database. A report is not proof the drug caused anything, and there is no way to know how many people took it.
| Most reported | Reports | Share of Ozempic reports |
|---|---|---|
| Nausea | 9,751 reports | 15% of Ozempic reports |
| Off label use | 6,949 reports | 11% of Ozempic reports |
| Vomiting | 6,341 reports | 9.6% of Ozempic reports |
| Diarrhea | 5,980 reports | 9.0% of Ozempic reports |
| Decreased appetite | 4,507 reports | 6.8% of Ozempic reports |
| Constipation | 4,406 reports | 6.7% of Ozempic reports |
| Weight decreased | 4,157 reports | 6.3% of Ozempic reports |
| Impaired gastric emptying | 3,431 reports | 5.2% of Ozempic reports |
| Product used for an unapproved purpose | 3,294 reports | 5.0% of Ozempic reports |
| Blood glucose increased | 2,962 reports | 4.5% of Ozempic reports |
Ozempic has by far the oldest report pile of the four, which matters: it has been on sale since 2017 and has had years longer to collect reports.
Two entries near the top are about how the drug is being used rather than what it did. One is use outside the label. The other is use for something it is not approved for. That is the weight-loss story showing up in the page.
4Interpret the page
The 2 mg dose is not in the table
The figures above cover 0.5 mg and 1 mg. The 2 mg dose only joined the label in March 2022, after the trials that built this table had finished.
What the label says about it is narrower: in a 40-week trial of 959 people taking 1 mg or 2 mg alongside metformin, no new safety problems turned up. That is a real finding, and it is not the same as a percentage.
Why Ozempic’s numbers look lower than Wegovy’s
Three things separate them, and none is that one drug is gentler.
The doses differ: this table tops out at 1 mg, while Wegovy’s tops out at 2.4 mg. The people differ too. These were adults with long-standing type 2 diabetes, not adults being treated for obesity.
The cut-off differs as well. Ozempic prints everything at 5 in 100 and above. Wegovy prints everything at 2 and above. So an effect landing between those two lines shows up on one label and not the other.
The labels themselves open with the warning that rates from one drug’s trials cannot be lined up against another’s. That applies here even though the drug substance is the same.
Why do Ozempic and Wegovy report different numbers for the same drug?
Both are semaglutide. The percentages differ because the trials behind them differ, not because one product is gentler than the other.
Each label opens its table with the same warning: rates from one drug’s trials cannot be set against another’s. That holds here even though the drug substance is identical. The two sets of trials enrolled different people. They ran to different doses. And they used different cut-offs for what got printed at all.
Where to read next
Two pages carry the parts this one leaves out.
- The Ozempic dose schedule has the step pattern these percentages are attached to.
- Side effects of semaglutide itself covers the drug across every product built on it.
Questions readers ask
What are the long-term side effects of taking Ozempic?
Can I just stop taking Ozempic?
What I wish I knew before taking Ozempic?
How do you feel after an Ozempic injection?
- OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection — DailyMed SPL, sections 5 and 6.1retrieved 2026-08-12FDA label