Sanofi and GSK May Have Known Ranitidine Degrades And Covered It Up

Scientists are starting to think that ranitidine is unstable and naturally degrades to become NDMA

Tuesday, April 13, 2021 - Heartburn relief and antacid products led by best-selling Zantac may be responsible for hundreds of thousands of Americans developing stomach, bladder, esophagus, colon, prostate, and a long list of other types of cancer. Sanofi and GalaxoSmithKline, the co-makers and marketers of the drug may have known for decades that ranitidine was unstable and naturally degraded to form a carcinogen. When online drug testing pharmacy Valisure first alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the presence of high levels of cancer agent N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) it was thought that outside conditions were the cause of the contamination. Scientists hypothesized that ranitidine could be adversely affected by high drug storage temperatures, the molecule's interaction with nitrates in the stomach, and also that overseas manufacturing facilities in China and India could be responsible. Now scientists have concluded that ranitidine is inherently unstable and any one of several stimuli could cause it to break down, gastric stomach acids being the most likely.

Fierce Pharma (FP) wrote in a recent article that online testing pharmacy Valisure has concluded that ranitidine is an inherently unstable molecule. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the results of the current most definitive study. FP reported: "The pharmacy's studies support "decades of research that ranitidine is fundamentally unstable, can form NDMA in a variety of conditions including in the human body and could be carcinogenic and toxic to humans," David Light, founder, and CEO of the company, said in a release." Light told Telegraph India, "The big problem, Valisure says, is that the Ranitidine molecule is so inherently unstable that a wide variety of conditions have been shown to degrade it into NDMA by many scientific groups, such as when it's digested. The company says the contamination of Ranitidine products is a worry but the significantly more serious problem is Ranitidine's potential to form millions of nanograms of NDMA, a known carcinogen, in the human body."

The enormous scope of the potential Zantac health problem is cause for concern. Over 15 million Americans were taking the medicine up to three times per day as prescribed when the recall shocked the world. People that regularly took the medication have filed Zantac cancer lawsuits that allege Sanofi and GSK had a responsibility to warn consumers of what they knew or were responsible for knowing about the carcinogenic nature of ranitidine. The US Department of Justice is investigating the companies and the result thereof could lead to plaintiff victories in court and massive jury awards. Reuters confirmed: "The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether drugs makers including Sanofi SA failed to disclose to the federal government information about the potential presence of a probable carcinogen in the heartburn drug Zantac." Legal experts think that if the DOJ investigation concludes that the companies conspired to cover up what they knew about Zantac cancer, thousands of plaintiffs may come forward to make Zantac Cancer litigation one of the largest mass tort cases of all time.

More Recent Heartburn MedicineLawsuit News:

• Zantac Cancer Trials Are In Discovery To Begin In October 2022 | 7/19/2022
• Zantac Cancer Lawsuits Could Hinge On The Validity of Ranitidine Testing Methods | 7/11/2022
• Zantac Cancer Bellwether Trials In California Could Set The Stage For A Global Settlement Offer | 7/5/2022
• The FDA Recommended Protein Pump Inhibitor Drugs Like Prilosec And Nexium That May Damage Health More Than Zantac | 6/23/2022
• Truck Drivers, Firefighters, and Police Officers May Have Taken More Zantac Than People In Other Occupations | 6/20/2022

Lawyers for Zantac Heartburn Medicine Lawsuits

OnderLaw, LLC is a St. Louis personal injury law firm handling serious injury and death claims across the country. Its mission is the pursuit of justice, no matter how complex the case or strenuous the effort. The Onder Law Firm has represented clients throughout the United States in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation such as Pradaxa, Lexapro and Yasmin/Yaz, where the firm's attorneys held significant leadership roles in the litigation, as well as Actos, DePuy, Risperdal and others. The Onder Law Firm has won more than $300 million in four talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits in St. Louis. Law firms throughout the nation often seek its experience and expertise on complex litigation.