(Reuters) – A Delaware judge has allowed more than 70,000 lawsuits over the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac to proceed, ruling that expert witnesses can testify in court that the drug can cause cancer.
The ruling, handed down Friday by Delaware Superior Court Judge Vivian Medinilla in Wilmington, is a blow to Zantac’s former manufacturers GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, which had argued the opinions of expert witnesses lacked scientific support.
“This brings us one step closer to justice for our clients,” Brent Wisner, one of the plaintiffs’ lead attorneys, said in a statement Saturday.
GSK, Pfizer and Sanofi each issued statements saying they disagreed with the decision and would appeal, saying there is no credible evidence that Zantac causes cancer. A Boehringer Ingelheim spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2019, some manufacturers and pharmacies stopped selling Zantac after some tablets were found to contain a chemical called NDMA, which is thought to be carcinogenic. Some tests showed that Zantac’s active ingredient, ranitidine, can break down into NDMA over time or when exposed to heat.
Lawsuits began piling up from people who claimed they had developed cancer after taking Zantac. The plaintiffs allege that the drug company knew or should have known about the risk of ranitidine causing cancer and failed to warn consumers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the manufacturer to remove the drug from the market in 2020. The drug company claims there is no evidence that Zantac exposes users to harmful levels of NDMA.
Judge Medinilla is overseeing most of the roughly 80,000 lawsuits pending in the U.S. over Zantac, once the world’s best-selling drug.
In addition to the Delaware lawsuit, the drug companies face about 4,000 lawsuits in California courts and about 2,000 in courts in other states across the country.
Last month, a Chicago jury dismissed an Illinois woman’s lawsuit alleging that Zantac caused her colon cancer, giving GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim their first trial victory.
In 2022, drug companies won a major victory when another judge dismissed roughly 50,000 lawsuits with similar claims that had been consolidated in federal court in Florida.
The judge concluded that the plaintiffs’ expert witness’ opinion that Zantac can cause cancer was not based on sound scientific evidence. The plaintiffs are appealing the decision.
Zantac became the world’s best-selling drug in 1988 and was one of the first drugs to reach annual sales of over $1 billion. It was originally marketed by a precursor to GSK, but was subsequently sold to Pfizer, Boehringer, and finally Sanofi.
(Reporting by Brendan Pearson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, David Barrio and Diane Craft)
