Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits which alleged that the company failed to warn patients about possible cancer risks caused by the anti-heartburn medication Zantac.
The lawsuits were filed in state courts across the country, but the agreements don’t completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac and cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
The Post has sought comment from Pfizer.
Zantac was brought to market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company.
By 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug as patients reported benefits for conditions such as heartburn, ulcers and acid reflux.
Glaxo’s patent for Zantac’s active ingredient, ranitidine, expired in 1997.
That same year, pharmaceutical companies began working on generic versions of the drug.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration asked drugmakers to pull Zantac and its generic versions off the market after a cancer-causing substance called NDMA was found in samples of the drug.
Thousands of lawsuits began piling up in federal and state courts against Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Last month, Sanofi reached an agreement in principle to settle 4,000 lawsuits linking Zantac to cancer.
Sanofi did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but Bloomberg News reported that the company will pay $100 million — or $25,000 to each plaintiff.
The agreement, which still needs to be finalized, will resolve most of the lawsuits against the French pharmaceutical company in US state courts, with the exception of Delaware where the majority of the cases are pending.
Sanofi still faces about 20,000 lawsuits over Zantac in Delaware state court.
A judge in Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington is weighing the fate of about 70,000 cases filed against Sanofi and other defendants, including GSK, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim.
“Sanofi is settling these cases, not because we believe the claims have any merit, but rather to avoid the expense and ongoing distraction of the litigation,” a Sanofi spokesperson said.
Sanofi and GSK lost an aggregate of $45 billion off of their market capitalization in the summer of 2022 after concerns about Zantac first arose.
GSK has already settled a number of Zantac-related lawsuits in California.
The terms of those settlements have not been disclosed.
Last week, a lawsuit brought by a Chicago-area woman who says she developed colorectal cancer after taking Zantac for nearly 20 years went to trial — the first-ever trial involving someone who used the drug.
Angela Valadez, 89, filed suit against GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim.
In her lawsuit, she alleged that the drug’s active ingredient, ranitidine, turns into a carcinogenic agent known as NDMA as it ages.
“We are confident in our position based on the facts and science and look forward to presenting our case at trial,” a GSK spokesperson said in a statement.
With Post Wires
