Posted on 05/08/24
| News Source: NY Post
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits which alleged that the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the anti-heartburn medication Zantac.
The lawsuits were filed in state courts across the country, but the agreements don’t completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac and cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
The Post has sought comment from Pfizer.
Zantac was brought to market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company.
By 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug as patients reported benefits for conditions such as heartburn, ulcers and acid reflux.
Glaxo’s patent for Zantac’s active ingredient, ranitidine, expired in 1997.
That same year, pharmaceutical companies began working on generic versions of the drug.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration asked drugmakers to pull Zantac and its generic versions off the market after a cancer-causing substance called NDMA was found in samples of the drug.
Thousands of lawsuits began piling up in federal and state courts against Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Last month, Sanofi reached an agreement in principle to settle 4,000 lawsuits linking Zantac to cancer.
Sanofi did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but Bloomberg News reported that the company will pay $100 million — or $25,000 to each plaintiff.