MDL's Purpose Is To Vet And Weed Out Unwarranted Zantac Cancer Claims
Each lawyer is to submit only the cases that meet the MDL judges criteria
Wednesday, July 7, 2021 - People with cancer of the stomach, bladder, colon, and others have registered to file lawsuits against Sanofi and GalaxoSmithKline for failing to warn them that using Zantac heartburn and acid reflux medicine regularly, allegedly cause their disease. The two companies are charged with negligence and fraud and being investigated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for lying to regulators about what they knew about NDMA and Zantac. More than 70,000 people have registered their intent to file lawsuits and are being represented by a handful of personal injury law firms from around the country. The cases have been centralized in multidistrict litigation to streamline repetitive administrative procedures and to interview expert witnesses and find those that are the most credible. Rather than take every potential plaintiff‘s word of having suffered damages at face value, MDL judges require that each plaintiff provides in advance evidence of the damages they incurred and also records of their use of the product. According to Reuters, "In the Zantac case, in particular, the MDL judge, U.S. Judge Robin Rosenberg of West Palm Beach, called for thousands of plaintiffs, including those in a registry of unfiled cases, to provide information about their use of the product and proof of their injury (or an explanation for why no such proof exists.)" Examples of such evidence could be medical records that show the date and description of the cancer diagnosis the plaintiff claims occurred, treatment records, and also receipts of prescription or over-the-counter Zantac purchases. Most of this documentation exists on credit or debit card bank statements. Each lawyer must weed through the thousands of cases they represent and present only those that meet the judge‘s criteria. Only when the MDL judge is satisfied will plaintiffs be admitted to the MDL pool. Each lawyer will recommend one or two plaintiffs that best represent the whole. The judge will accept several cases to hear as bellwether cases. The jury‘s reaction to bellwether cases sets the tone for a defendant to present a settlement offer or the plaintiffs to press forward with their claims. MDL differs from a class-action lawsuit in many ways, one of which is that as soon as the core issues of MDL are decided each plaintiff has their case heard individually using the common evidence. Visit Zantac antacid cancer lawsuit to learn more.
Zantac is the brand name for the generic drug ranitidine, at the core of the current mass-cancer scare. More than 15 million people used Zantac every day thinking it was safe until around March of 2020, when online prescription drug testing pharmacy Valisure tested ranitidine and found it contained enormous amounts of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), one of the most carcinogenic substances on earth. The company immediately notified Sanofi who pulled Zantac from store shelves and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who followed up about a month later by banning all forms of generic and brand ranitidine until further testing indicated it was safe. Many consider it the responsibility of the FDA to constantly monitor drugs they approved years ago for their continued integrity and safety. Others think it is the responsibility of drug manufacturers or retailers to test their products regularly. Valisure online prescription drug testing pharmacy fills the gap in drug testing responsibility nobody else seemed to want to address.
