Hawaii Ozempic (GLP-1) Lawsuit: The Litigation, Explained

Marin & Murphy

Ozempic (GLP-1) — Hawaii Litigation

The Ozempic Litigation, Explained

Two consolidated federal proceedings, a September 2026 expert hearing, and state deadlines that vary — here is where the litigation stands.

No Ozempic or other GLP-1 lawsuit has been settled, and no court or jury has found that these medications caused anyone's injury — the litigation is ongoing, with major expert-evidence rulings still ahead. Whether any individual has a claim depends on their own medical records and the law of their state.

Marin & Murphy is not licensed in Hawaii; details below.

Partners

Matthew T. Marin & Stefanie A. Murphy

No Ozempic or other GLP-1 lawsuit has been settled, and no court or jury has found that these medications caused anyone's injury — the litigation is ongoing, with major expert-evidence rulings still ahead. Whether any individual has a claim depends on their own medical records and the law of their state. Do not stop, start, or change any prescribed medication because of anything on this page. Those decisions belong with your prescriber. Whether any individual has a claim depends on their medical records and the law of their state. The information below covers the litigation itself.

Hawaii’s GLP-1 claims cross an ocean before they cross a courtroom: filed in the District of Hawaii, consolidated in Philadelphia — stomach injuries into MDL 3094, NAION vision loss into MDL 3163, both before Judge Karen S. Marston in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Marin & Murphy Law Firm is licensed in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina, and is not licensed to practice law in Hawaii. This page is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer to represent any Hawaii resident. The firm does not accept Hawaii legal matters; inquiries from Hawaii residents are referred to attorneys licensed in Hawaii.

Honolulu filing, Philadelphia docket

The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii is the starting point; the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation supplies the destination. GLP-1 stomach-injury cases join MDL 3094 and NAION cases join MDL 3163, both consolidated before Judge Karen S. Marston in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania — dockets of 4,025 and 247 pending cases as of the October 2026 JPML report, with no verdicts and no settlements.

A Hawaii case, up close: Peters v. Novo Nordisk

No official tally breaks these filings down by state, so we track actual Hawaii cases from the court record rather than estimate. On July 13, 2026, a resident of Kailua-Kona filed Peters v. Novo Nordisk, No. 2:26-cv-04867 (E.D. Pa.) — an 11-page short form complaint on the public docket, direct-filed into MDL 3094 with the District of Hawaii designated as its Original Venue — the home court the case is set up to return to for trial, subject to the challenges the Direct Filing Order preserves. Direct filing let the case enter the MDL immediately rather than wait for a JPML transfer order, while preserving that home district as its Original Venue for any later transfer out.

The filing alleges Ozempic use from January 2022 to December 2024 and checks two injuries from the form’s list — ileus and intestinal obstruction. It adopts eight of the master complaint’s sixteen counts, running from the failure-to-warn core through Count VII, plus Count XIII, the state product-liability count — for which the filing supplies its own Hawaii citations (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7; §§ 662-1 through 662-15) in the form’s ¶ 21, as the form permits. Hawaii is not among the eleven states whose product-liability acts the master complaint itself lists, and its act does not displace the common-law theories — so here the statutory count sits alongside the common-law core rather than replacing it; the master complaint’s state-law inventory separately pleads Hawaii’s consumer-protection statute. Deemed answered and denied on filing, like every MDL case, with no individual answer from any defendant ever appearing on the docket. The form’s fields are walked through on our short form complaint page.

The usual cautions: one plaintiff’s pleading, drawn from the public record, its allegations unproven and disputed. No court has ruled on the merits of any GLP-1 injury claim. It is not a predictor of any other Hawaii filing. The deadline that governed it is covered next.

Hawaii’s two-year rule across five time zones

Hawaii allows two years, with accrual tied to your medical timeline — when the injury surfaced and was connected to the drug. Distance from the mainland changes nothing about the deadline; the citations below and a prompt dates review are what matter.

Who may qualify

• Stomach injuries (gastroparesis or gastric obstruction): use of brand-name Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus (not compounded or generic semaglutide); a diagnosis confirmed by objective testing such as a gastric emptying study, made while taking the medication or within about 30 days of stopping; a related emergency-room visit or hospital admission; and a diagnosis made before December 31, 2024.
• NAION (sudden optic-nerve vision loss): use of brand-name Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Trulicity, Mounjaro, or Zepbound; an actual NAION diagnosis made during or after use; and some degree of permanent vision impairment.
• Criteria evolve, and near-miss situations are often worth reviewing with a lawyer licensed in your state.

Common questions

How widespread is GLP-1 use in Hawaii?

Hawaii Medicaid reported over 45,000 GLP-1 prescriptions in 2024, most of them Ozempic (CMS State Drug Utilization Data). The CDC’s 2023 age-adjusted rates — 9.5% diabetes, 26.8% obesity, the latter among the country’s lowest — underline how broadly these drugs reach even in healthier states.

Do Hawaii Ozempic cases stay in Hawaii?

No — they make the longest trip in the litigation, from the District of Hawaii to the consolidated dockets in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (MDL 3094 for stomach injuries, MDL 3163 for NAION) via JPML transfer. Unresolved cases can be remanded home for trial.

The Hawaii numbers, floor by floor

Hawaii’s Medicaid program covered at least 28,930 Ozempic prescriptions in 2024, with at least 8,345 more for Trulicity and 3,707 for Mounjaro (CMS State Drug Utilization Data). CDC 2023 age-adjusted prevalence — 9.5% diabetes, 26.8% obesity — ranks among the nation’s lowest, yet the prescribing volume persists. Counts are Medicaid-only floors with suppressed small cells.

Hawaii deadlines: the statutory detail

Hawaii’s baseline limitations period for personal-injury suits is two years (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7), and Hawaii recognizes a discovery rule — the period runs from when you knew, or reasonably should have known, of the injury and its cause — making the date your gastroparesis or NAION was diagnosed and linked to a GLP-1 drug the pivotal fact. A wrongful-death claim carries a two-year period that begins at death (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-3(b)), brought by the surviving family members entitled by statute. For pretrial purposes, federal cases out of Hawaii consolidate into the national GLP-1 proceedings. Both extensions and shortcuts exist in the statutes — nothing but a review of your specific dates settles the question.

Nearby: Ozempic lawsuit information for California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska — or browse every state.