Drugmakers’ Plea to End Zantac Cancer Lawsuits Rejected by Judge

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A Delaware judge rejected a request by GSK and other drugmakers to appeal a ruling that allowed more than 70,000 lawsuits alleging that the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer to proceed.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Vivian Medinilla’s ruling means the drugmakers, which also include Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, will have to ask the Delaware Supreme Court directly for permission to appeal. GSK said it has already filed its appeal with that court.

If the state’s highest court refuses to hear the appeal, it would clear the way for Zantac’s lawsuits to go to trial.

“Judge Medinilla strongly rejected the attempt by GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Sanofi to end the jury system in Delaware,” said Jennifer Moore, attorney for the plaintiffs.

GSK, in a statement, said “the scientific consensus remains that there is no consistent or reliable evidence that ranitidine increases the risk of any type of cancer.” Ranitidine is the active ingredient in the now discontinued medication.

Lawsuits began piling up after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020 asked manufacturers to pull the drug from the market over concerns that ranitidine could degrade into a cancer-causing chemical called NDMA over time. weather or when exposed to heat.

Drugmakers say Medinilla should have prevented plaintiffs from submitting expert testimony that Zantac can cause cancer, as a federal judge did in 2022 in about 50,000 claims centered in Florida.

Plaintiffs’ cases depend on this testimony and cannot go to trial without it.

Industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, backed the drugmakers’ appeal in a brief filed last month, saying that leaving Medinilla’s position relaxed evidentiary standards in the traditionally business-friendly state and threatened to turn it into a “product liability focus”. and mass tort litigation.”

Medinilla wrote Monday that he did not adopt a different standard than the Florida federal judge, but simply reached a different conclusion about the evidence in the case.

First approved in 1983, Zantac became the best-selling drug in the world in 1988 and one of the first to surpass $1 billion in annual sales. It was originally marketed by a precursor to GSK and later sold successively to other companies.

The vast majority of pending cases are in Delaware. Only one case, against GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim in Illinois, went to trial, ending in a victory for the companies last month.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)