GLP-1 MDL Case Count History: Verified Federal GI Numbers

A clean four-point history

JPML created gastrointestinal-injury MDL 3094 in February 2024 from 18 actions and 37 reported related actions. For a reproducible growth history, later monthly statistics provide the better apples-to-apples comparison. The March 3, 2025 report listed 1,521 actions now pending and 1,524 total historical actions. On July 1, 2025, those columns read 1,997 and 2,000.

The April 1, 2026 report recorded 3,546 pending and 3,580 historical actions. The latest report available for this article, dated July 1, 2026, recorded 3,848 pending and 3,882 historical actions. Pending inventory therefore increased by 476 between the March and July 2025 snapshots, by 1,549 between July 2025 and April 2026, and by 302 between April and July 2026. These are period differences, not fabricated month-by-month filing totals.

What JPML is counting

“Actions Now Pending” is the number active in the centralized federal proceeding on the report date. “Total Actions (Historical)” is cumulative. The July 2026 difference of 34 actions does not reveal why those matters were no longer pending. Some may have been dismissed, remanded, transferred, consolidated or corrected. The aggregate report contains no outcome code for each action, so the difference should not be presented as 34 settlements or 34 defense wins.

One action is not necessarily one injured person in every practical sense, and a filed action is not a validated claim. MDL procedures include complaints, plaintiff fact sheets, medical and product evidence, motions and defenses. A number enters the JPML inventory because an action is docketed in the coordinated federal litigation—not because a judge has decided that a listed medicine caused the alleged gastrointestinal condition.

The most important boundary: GI is not NAION

MDL 3094 concerns gastrointestinal-injury allegations involving GLP-1 receptor agonist products. In December 2025, JPML created MDL 3163 for a different alleged injury, non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. On July 1, 2026, JPML listed 146 pending actions in MDL 3163. Both proceedings are in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before Judge Karen S. Marston, but shared judge and drug class do not make them one docket.

A headline saying there are 3,994 “GLP-1 lawsuits” could be mathematically derived from those two federal pending counts, but it would hide the injury and docket distinction. A gastroparesis or GI page should use 3,848. A NAION page should use 146. A combined overview may state both separately with the same report date. That approach prevents eye-injury cases from inflating a GI trend and keeps readers oriented to the court actually deciding each issue.

What the figures leave out

The JPML total does not include every state-court case, a potential claimant who has not filed, FDA adverse-event reports, prescriptions, users with ordinary transient side effects, or the number of people diagnosed with gastroparesis nationwide. Those categories answer different questions and have different denominators. Combining them creates a large but meaningless number.

The count also spans multiple products and allegations within MDL 3094. The initial transfer order named Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Trulicity and Mounjaro, while later pleadings and product developments can require closer review. JPML does not publish a monthly product-by-product or injury-by-injury breakout in its active-docket report. Any page claiming an exact Ozempic-only case count from this report is inferring more than the source provides.

Use counts as a scale marker, not a forecast

Docket growth can increase the importance of efficient fact sheets, common discovery and cross-cutting rulings. It may also encourage parties to evaluate broad resolution options. But volume cannot predict whether expert opinions will be admitted, how warning or preemption arguments will be decided, whether cases will be selected for trial, or what an individual case might be worth. Those require orders, evidence and case-specific facts.

Future reports may show a rise or decline for reasons unrelated to a merits ruling. The reliable practice is simple: cite the PDF, state its report date, identify the MDL number, and preserve both pending and historical columns. As of July 1, 2026, the properly scoped statement is that MDL 3094 had 3,848 pending federal GI actions and 3,882 historical actions. It is a docket status, not a settlement announcement.

Reader questions

Frequently asked questions