Pending 40 Zantac Suits Consolidated For Pretrial Litigation

Pending 40 Zantac Suits Consolidated For Pretrial Litigation

Introduction

A panel of New York courts has decided to hold merged pretrial proceedings in the state for at least 40 identical petitions already filed alleging that the recalled heartburn medication Zantac caused users to get cancer.

Zantac (ranitidine) was taken off the market in late 2019 when it was determined that the active pharmaceutical component is inherently unstable and creates large quantities of the chemical byproduct N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which is a powerful human carcinogen.

More than 100,000 Zantac lawsuits have been filed against GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Sanofi, and other manufacturers, distributors, and retailers involved in the sale of brand name or generic ranitidine pills by former users who claim they were diagnosed with bladder cancer, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, or other injuries as NDMA moved through their bodies.

Given the same factual and legal issues addressed in claims filed throughout the federal court system, the Zantac lawsuit was concentrated in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida for coordinated discovery and pretrial procedures. However, on December 6, the court made an unexpected order, deciding that all of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses were barred from testifying at trial under federal causation evidence admissibility rules.

As a result of the judgement, federal claimants will be unable to prove that the recalled Zantac tablets caused their cancer, and all Zantac litigation currently in federal court will be dismissed.

The federal decision, however, has no bearing on litigation brought in various state courts, where varying requirements for admissibility of expert witness testimony apply. The New York State Litigation Coordinating Panel decided yesterday that 40 Zantac claims be consolidated in New York County for pretrial proceedings. While no Coordinating Justice has been appointed to handle the lawsuit, all ongoing processes have been halted until one is.

In complex product liability litigation, where a large number of claims raise similar allegations against the manufacturers of similar products, it is common for the claims to be consolidated so that the parties can reduce duplicative discovery that would otherwise be repeated across a large number of claims, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings, and serve the convenience of common parties and witnesses.

Like a federal multidistrict litigation, but at the state level, the cases filed in the New York mass litigation will remain independent claims, and if no resolution or settlement agreement is reached following pretrial proceedings, each case will be tried individually in its originating New York state court district.

There are an estimated 50,000 Zantac lawsuits pending in state courts across the United States, with the first cases scheduled to go before jurors in various locales in 2023. Additional Zantac trials in California state courts are slated to commence later this year, with cases scheduled to go before jurors on May 1, 2023, August 7, 2023, and October 23, 2023.

These trials will be closely followed by all parties engaged in the action, and they may serve as a "bellwether" to assist predict how jurors will react to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated across the other state court proceedings.