Over 200 people recently joined together to file a new Zantac class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. This is the location of the current consolidated Zantac MDL, which was formed in February 2020.
The plaintiffs bring the action on behalf of themselves and all other similarly situated residents of the U.S. or its territories who purchased and/or used Zantac for personal, family, or household use. As an alternative or in addition to the nationwide class, the plaintiffs bring the action in their individual capacities on behalf of residents in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
According to the complaint, Zantac manufacturers deceived millions of consumers into “purchasing and ingesting a defective, misbranded, adulterated, and harmful drug” while failing to warn about the potential for that drug to contain N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a cancer-causing agent.
Plaintiffs who used the drug between 1983 when it was first approved until April 2020 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed it from the market now face a potential increased risk of developing cancer, which may require them to endure costly medical monitoring, treatments, and/or medications for the rest of their lives.
NDMA was originally used to manufacture rocket fuel, but after it was discovered to contaminate the environment, its use in commercial industry was banned. Today, it is produced only for use in scientific laboratories, where researchers use it to induce cancerous tumors in laboratory animals.
The defendants, the plaintiffs argue, knew or should have known of the NDMA risk in their products, as early studies showed that ranitidine could convert into cancerous N-nitroso compounds like NDMA in human gastric fluid when accompanied by nitrites—a substance commonly found in food and the body. NDMA itself, in addition, has long been deemed a probable human carcinogen and is labeled as such today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Comments