When Did Sanofi Know Ranitidine Become Carcinogenic
Plaintiff attorneys are eager to get the results of a Department of Justice investigation of Sanofi, the maker of Zantac heartburn and acid reflux medicine
Friday, July 23, 2021 - The DOJ has accused the drugmaker of lying to US investigators about their knowledge of ranitidine degrading during routine storage conditions into N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a deadly carcinogen. Plaintiffs accuse the company of negligence of failing to warn them of the danger of getting cancer and also accuse them of fraud for deliberately concealing information about the science that underlies the two molecules. Plaintiffs that have taken Zantac several times per day for a decade or more, tell their lawyers that if they had been warned they would have never done so and would have chosen another route to take to deal with their condition. More than 15 million Zantac users suffered from heartburn, acid reflux, gastrointestinal disease (GERD), and a variety of other painful conditions. Sanofi pulled Zantac from retailers Walmart, Rite Aid, and CVS a couple of years ago when online prescription drug testing pharmacy Valisure found elevated levels of NDMA in every sample of Zantac they tested. The levels of NDMA in some samples were as high as 3 million nanograms per tablet, alarmingly above the 96 nanograms per tablet that the Food and Drug Administration decided was safe. zantac cancer lawyers offer a free no-obligation consultation before filing a claim.
In addition to being investigated by the DOJ, Sanofi is accused by plaintiff attorneys of deleting key emails from the past that may have proven that they knew about ranitidine degrading to become NDMA. According to Seeking Alpha, "Sanofi is alleged to have deleted Emails linked to Zantac recall. Lawyers representing more than 70,000 former patients who sued Sanofi (SNY -1.6%) in the U.S. have accused the company of destroying internal emails related to the 2019 recall of heartburn treatment Zantac, Bloomberg reports." Deleting the emails of Michael Bailey, the head of regulatory affairs of the U.S. Consumer Healthcare is said by SA to make it more difficult for plaintiffs to prove the company deliberately or negligently allowed ranitidine to be sold despite its cancer death-sentence side effect. A federal judge recently decided that other emails that were handed over to regulators have to be returned because they are considered protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Regardless of Sanofi and other previous Zantac patentholder‘s deception, negligence, and fraud, Judge Robin L. Rosenberg, who presides over the national Zantac multi-district litigation, has called for a science day to be held on September 30, 2021. The judge is determined to get to the facts regarding the scientific underpinnings of this case so that jurors hear will hear the best available scientific reports and limit inflammatory or theatrical testimony. The judge issued a pre-trial order stating attorneys from both sides "identify no more than two expert witnesses (and include their CV) who will be available within the next several months to participate in a Science Day." The judge will study this information for weeks or months before deciding which expert will be allowed to testify and which science does not hold water.
