A US judge in Florida has dismissed thousands of lawsuits claiming that popular heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer, ruling that unreliable methodologies were used to reach conclusions, and handing a big victory to pharmaceutical companies GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim.
US district judge Robin Rosenberg said in an order on Tuesday that the almost 2 500 lawsuits filed by plaintiffs were based on flawed science, and that the only reliable testing of the blockbuster drug showed an “unprovable risk of cancer”.
The Financial Times reports that analysts said the ruling should remove a large portion of the potential liability linked to the Zantac litigation, which investors had feared could lead to tens of billions of dollars of personal injury awards if claimants had proven a link with cancer.
About £30bn was wiped off the value of large pharmaceutical companies in early August after publication of a note by investment bank UBS that flagged a “potential overhang” on Sanofi’s stock price because of the Zantac litigation. Analysts had estimated damages could reach as high as $45bn.
The companies could still face thousands of similar personal injury cases filed in state courts, which are being litigated separately from the federal multi-district litigation in Florida.
Zantac, which is the brand name for the drug ranitidine, has been sold by large pharmaceutical companies including GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, for the past 35 years. Several smaller generic companies have also sold versions of the drug.
The four defendants in the litigation denied that using Zantac led to an increased cancer risk and strongly criticised the credibility of a small independent lab that first raised concerns about the link between Zantac and cancer. Rosenberg said there was no scientist outside the litigation who concluded ranitidine causes cancer and said experts put forward by the plaintiffs had utilised unreliable methodologies to reach their conclusions.
“The plaintiffs’ scientists systemically utilised unreliable methodologies with a lack of documentation on how experiments were conducted, a lack of substantiation for analytical leaps, a lack of statistically significant data, and a lack of internally consistent, objective, science-based standards for the even-handed evaluation of data,” the judge wrote in the 300-page ruling.
In a statement, GSK said the ruling “ensured that unreliable and litigation-driven science did not enter the federal courtroom”.
Brent Wisner, the co-lead liaison counsel for claimants in the Zantac California state litigation, said he was focused on pursuing the litigation in state courts. “We have our first trial scheduled for 13 February 2023 in Oakland, California. I feel very confident about the science in our favour . . . Our clients are suffering from all types of cancers and deserve justice.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Oops! So sorry about that, Zantac…
More countries and companies recall heartburn drug Zantac
SA pharmas withdraw heartburn meds over safety concerns
Aspen writes down value after Australia recalls heartburn drug over cancer risks