Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits accusing it of hiding the cancer risks of its heartburn drug Zantac.
Financial details have not been disclosed, but pharmaceutical rival Sanofi agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle 4,000 Zantac cancer claims last month.
The over-the-counter pill was recalled in the US in 2020 after animal studies found that a key ingredient released “probable human carcinogens.”
Pfizer was the main manufacturer of Zantac from 1998 to 2006, when several lawsuits claim it should have known the drug was contaminated with NDMA.
Pfizer Agreed to Settle More Than 10,000 Lawsuits Alleging Its Heartburn Drug Zantac Caused Cancer (Stock)
The plaintiffs claimed that the drug was contaminated with the impurity due to improper manufacturing practices and that Pfizer concealed this information from consumers.
NDMA is a chemical byproduct of many industrial manufacturing processes, including rocket fuel production.
It is also common in small amounts in many foods, such as cured or smoked meats, fish, and beer, as well as in tobacco smoke.
NDMA is a “permanent chemical,” meaning it does not break down or break down naturally in our bodies and is believed to cause DNA damage.
Since the drug was withdrawn and reformulated, thousands of lawsuits began to accumulate in federal and state courts against Pfizer, GSK, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, who owned the rights to the drug.
The settlements with Pfizer cover cases in U.S. state courts but do not fully resolve the company’s exposure to Zantac’s claims, according to people familiar with the matter. he told Bloomberg.
Financial details of the deals were not immediately available.
“Pfizer has and will continue to explore opportunistic settlements in certain cases, if applicable, and has resolved certain cases,” the New York-based company said by email.
“The company has not sold a Zantac product in more than 15 years and only did so for a limited period of time.”
There have been no cases of cancer officially linked to Zantac, the WHO says, although thousands of patients have claimed otherwise.
Animal studies have shown that NDMA may increase the risk of esophageal, kidney, and stomach cancer. They have also been linked to colorectal cancer, which is increasing among young Americans.
The FDA ordered all products with rantidine, the active ingredient in Zantac, off shelves in 2020 and urged patients to stop taking any medications containing the ingredient.