Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the heartburn drug Zantac.
The lawsuits have been filed in state courts across the country, but the settlements do not fully resolve Pfizer’s exposure to claims linking Zantac to cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
The terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
The Post requested comment from Pfizer.
Zantac was marketed in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company now part of GlaxoSmithKline.
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.
The same year, pharmaceutical companies began working on generic versions of the drug.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration asked drugmakers to remove Zantac and its generic versions from 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 a tentative agreement to settle 4,000 lawsuits linking Zantac to cancer.
Sanofi did not disclose the financial terms of the settlement, but Bloomberg News reported that the company would pay $100 million, or $25,000, to each plaintiff.
The agreement, which has yet to be finalized, will resolve most of the lawsuits filed against the French pharmaceutical group in US state courts, with the exception of Delaware where the majority of cases are pending.
Sanofi still faces approximately 20,000 lawsuits against Zantac in Delaware state court.
A Delaware Superior Court judge in Wilmington is weighing the fate of about 70,000 complaints filed against Sanofi and other defendants, including GSK, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim.
“Sanofi is settling these cases, not because we believe the claims have any merit, but rather to avoid the expense and continued distraction of litigation,” a Sanofi spokesperson said.
Sanofi and GSK lost a combined $45 billion in market capitalization over the summer of 2022 after concerns about Zantac first emerged.
GSK has already settled a number of Zantac-related lawsuits in California.
The terms of these settlements were not disclosed.
Last week, a lawsuit filed by a Chicago-area woman who claims she developed colorectal cancer after taking Zantac for nearly 20 years went to trial — the first-ever lawsuit involving someone who used the drug.
Angela Valadez, 89, filed a complaint against GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim.
In her lawsuit, she alleged that the drug’s active ingredient, ranitidine, turns into a carcinogen known as NDMA as we age.
“We are confident in our position based on facts and science and look forward to presenting our case at trial,” a GSK spokesperson said in a statement.
With post wires
New York Post
