Faulty Ranitidine Testing Methods May Have Caused NDMA To Accelerate
Scientists suggest that heating ranitidine during testing and not ranitidine is the cause of high levels of NDMA
Saturday, June 26, 2021 - Attorneys for plaintiffs suing Sanofi, the maker of Zantac heartburn medicine, working with independent scientists, are trying to sure up the facts that link taking Zantac ranitidine with getting stomach, bladder, and other types of cancer. Scientists are being accused of using faulty NDMA testing methods, ones that use high heat, as destroying ranitidine and creating higher NDMA levels. WebMD.com interviewed expert Ron Najafi, Ph.D., and CEO of Emery Pharma, a research laboratory that tested ranitidine, who told them how to heat a sample of ranitidine using the industry-accepted testing method causes ranitidine to break down to form N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Najafi told WebMD, "The test method used by the Stanford and Syracuse professors, who have not yet responded to a request for comment, is known as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry or GC/MS. Gas chromatography has to heat the sample for you to be able to analyze anything. That heating messes up the sample." Visit Zantac antacid cancer lawsuit to learn more.
While some say that suggests the high heat testing method and not ranitidine is the problem, others like Valisure CEO David Light disagree and think the tests confirm ranitidine‘s inherent problem. Light‘s position is that ranitidine is an unstable molecule and the body‘s higher temperatures, or high temperatures in transportation or storage, turn ranitidine carcinogenic. Lawyers may argue that Sanofi and retailers like Walmart, Rite Aid, and CVS that sold Zantac are ultimately responsible for the safety of the drug. Sanofi knew or had an obligation to know that ranitidine could become NDMA if exposed to high heat and the longer and higher the exposure, the more carcinogenic it could become. It is simple science. A study conducted by researchers at Sloan Memorial Cancer Hospital and Valisure looked at 10,000 of the hospital‘s cancer patients and found "a link between ranitidine use and cancers of the breast, thyroid, bladder, and prostate. Their study was published as a preprint and is not yet peer-reviewed," Web MD reports.
Zantac cancer patients have been placed into multidistrict litigation to make sense of the complex science that underscores more than 70,000 cases that have signed up to file claims. A "Science Day" has been scheduled for September 20, 2021, when both sides will present scientific experts that will explain their case. U.S.District Judge Robin Rosenberg will allow each side to present two experts to explain the science they feel supports their arguments. For more than 25 years, Zantac has been a leading brand of heartburn and acid reflux medicine that was being taken by more than 15 million Americans as of April 1, 2020, when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled all brands and generic forms of ranitidine of which Zantac is one. Sanofi has since pulled an end-run on the FDA and rebranded Zantac as Zantac 360 famotidine, a completely different drug, as being new and improved heartburn and acid reflux medicine.
