In a significant courtroom victory, GSK triumphed in the latest trial concerning allegations that the heartburn medication Zantac caused cancer. On Monday, a jury determined that the drug was not the cause of an Illinois woman’s colorectal cancer, according to a company spokesperson.
The lawsuit, filed by Carrie Joiner in Chicago’s state court, claimed that a carcinogenic contaminant, NDMA, found in Zantac, was responsible for her illness. Zantac, a once-popular drug, was sold at various times by GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Approved by U.S. regulators in 1983, it became the best-selling medicine globally by 1988, surpassing $1 billion in annual sales.
Despite this recent win, GSK and other pharmaceutical giants are still facing a tidal wave of lawsuits in courts across the United States. Most of these cases are concentrated in Delaware state court. In June, a judge allowed over 70,000 cases to proceed, rejecting the defendants’ attempt to discredit the scientific methods of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses. This decision is currently under appeal.
The controversy surrounding Zantac intensified in 2020 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested the drug’s removal from the market. Concerns arose that ranitidine, Zantac’s active ingredient, could break down into NDMA over time or when exposed to heat.
