Court Considers Motions to Dismiss Zantac Recall Lawsuits

Court Considers Motions to Dismiss Zantac Recall Lawsuits

Introduction

A series of virtual hearings have been scheduled by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg to evaluate a number of motions to dismiss filed by the manufacturers of Zantac that claim the drug causes cancer.

The hearings began on June 03 via Zoom conference call, another is scheduled for June 04, with a possible third day on June 07, to address the motion filed by the plaintiffs that argues the manufacturers delayed the documentation process in providing evidence and deleted the emails of Zantac recall. 

More than 70,000 potential product liability lawsuits are faced by Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, and other drug manufacturers, distributors and retailers over the past two years. The lawsuits allege that when the drug is stored at higher temperatures, the active ingredient present in Zantac converts to high levels of a potent human carcinogen as it passes through the body.

In 2019, researchers found dangerous levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in nearly all the versions of Zantac and generic ranitidine which resulted in the litigation. NDMA is used to induce tumors in test rats during laboratory studies.

Now the former Zantac users are pursuing lawsuits against the drug makers as the manufacturers failed to provide adequate warnings to the users and the medical community. The users are diagnosed with various cancers such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, bladder cancer, liver cancer, and other injuries.

All the Zantac lawsuits are centralized before U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg in the Southern District of Florida for a coordinated discovery of evidence and to prevent a repetition of testimony.