Sanofi to settle 4,000 Zantac cancer lawsuits in US state courts
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[April 04, 2024]
By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sanofi has reached an agreement in principle to
settle 4,000 U.S. lawsuits linking the discontinued heartburn drug
Zantac to cancer, the company said on Wednesday.
Sanofi did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The agreement,
which still needs to be finalized, will resolve most of the lawsuits
against the French pharmaceutical company in U.S. state courts, with the
exception of Delaware where the majority of the cases are pending.
Sanofi did not admit any liability in the settlement, and said it is
settling to avoid the expense and ongoing distraction of the litigation.
"Sanofi has vigorously defended the Zantac litigation since the outset
and will continue to do so," the company said in a statement.
Sanofi still faces about 20,000 lawsuits over Zantac in Delaware state
court. A judge in Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington is weighing the
fate of about 70,000 cases filed against Sanofi and other defendants,
including GSK, Pfizer, and Boehringer Ingelheim.
GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Plaintiffs and defendants are awaiting a ruling from the judge on
whether there is sufficient scientific evidence to support plaintiffs'
claims that Zantac causes cancer.
The drugmakers notched a significant win in 2022, when another judge
dismissed about 50,000 lawsuits making similar claims that had been
consolidated in federal court in Florida.
That judge concluded that the opinions of the plaintiffs' expert
witnesses that Zantac can cause cancer were not supported by sound
science. Plaintiffs are appealing that ruling.
The drugmakers have maintained that there is no evidence Zantac exposed
users to harmful levels of the carcinogenic chemical NDMA.
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Zantac heartburn pills are seen in this picture illustration taken
October 1, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Illustration/File Photo
Jennifer Moore and Brent Wisner, who
are the lead plaintiffs’ attorneys in the Delaware and California
litigation, said on Wednesday that they were pleased that Sanofi had
reached a settlement while litigation continues against other
defendants.
"We are pushing forward aggressively against GSK and Boehringer
Ingelheim and are preparing for multiple trials in California state
court this year," Moore said.
First approved in 1983, Zantac became the world's best- selling
medicine in 1988 and one of the first-ever drugs to top $1 billion
in annual sales. Originally marketed by a forerunner of GSK, it was
later sold successively to Pfizer, Boehringer and finally to Sanofi.
In 2019, some manufacturers and pharmacies halted Zantac sales after
NDMA was detected in some pills. Some tests showed that Zantac's
active ingredient, ranitidine, could degrade into NDMA over time or
when exposed to heat.
Lawsuits began piling up from people who said they developed cancer
after taking Zantac. Plaintiffs said the companies knew, or should
have known, that ranitidine posed a cancer risk and that they failed
to warn consumers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked manufacturers to pull
the drug off the market in 2020.
Sanofi now sells Zantac360, a reformulated heartburn medicine whose
active ingredient is famotidine.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New YorkEditing by Chris Reese,
Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)
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