In January 2026 the MHRA updated product information for GLP-1 receptor agonists — the family that includes semaglutide, liraglutide and tirzepatide — with strengthened warnings about severe acute pancreatitis, including necrotising and fatal cases.
Between 2007 and October 2025 the agency received 1,296 Yellow Card reports of pancreatitis associated with these medicines.
Putting That Number in Context
1,296 reports over 18 years sounds alarming until you set it against usage. Research from University College London estimated that around 1.6 million adults in England, Wales and Scotland used a GLP-1 for weight loss in a single year spanning 2024 to 2025.
Yellow Card reports are also not confirmed cases. They are suspected reactions, reported voluntarily, and the scheme deliberately errs towards over-reporting so that signals can be found. Pancreatitis with GLP-1 medicines is a known and uncommon risk, not a common one.
That does not make it something to ignore. Uncommon and severe is precisely the combination that justifies knowing the symptoms in advance.
The Symptoms That Matter
The one to memorise is severe, persistent pain in the upper abdomen that spreads through to the back. It is often accompanied by:
- Nausea and vomiting that will not settle
- A distended or tender abdomen
- Fever
- A rapid pulse
- Pain that worsens after eating, particularly fatty food
The word doing the work is severe. Ordinary GLP-1 nausea is common, usually worst in the days after a dose increase, and it settles. Pancreatitis pain is not that. It is intense, it does not ease, and it goes through to the back.
What to Do
Stop taking the medicine and seek urgent medical help — NHS 111, an urgent care service, or A&E if the pain is severe. Do not wait to see whether it passes overnight, and do not take the next weekly dose while you are waiting to be seen.
Tell whoever assesses you exactly which GLP-1 you take, at what dose, and when you last took it. With a weekly injection, the medicine is still in your system for days after the last dose, and that is clinically relevant.
Who Is at Higher Risk
Anyone with a history of pancreatitis should raise it before starting. Gallstones and heavy alcohol use are the classic risk factors for pancreatitis generally, and they do not stop being risk factors because you are taking a GLP-1. Rapid weight loss is itself associated with gallstone formation, which is one reason gallbladder symptoms come up so often in this context.
The Genetics Study
The MHRA and Genomics England are running a Yellow Card Biobank study asking whether genetic factors influence who develops pancreatitis on these medicines. It is recruiting people who have been hospitalised with acute pancreatitis while taking a GLP-1.
If that describes you, taking part contributes to work that could eventually identify who is at risk before they start rather than after. Reporting through the Yellow Card scheme is worth doing regardless — it is the mechanism by which warnings like the January 2026 update come to exist at all.