Judge Releases Pharmacies and Retailers from Zantac Multidistrict Litigation

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Pharmacies and retailers who allegedly allowed a carcinogen to form in heartburn medication Zantac by heating it above the recommended temperature have been freed from multidistrict litigation (MDL).

A Florida federal judge ruled that consumers in the Zantac lawsuits had not proven the companies’ negligence caused the carcinogen to form and that there was no proof the companies had heated the drug in excess, Law360 reported.

U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg granted the motion to dismiss Albertsons Cos. Inc., Walgreen Co., CVS Pharmacy Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., The Kroger Co., Amazon.com Inc. and a slew of other companies from the MDL, with the retailers and pharmacies they were not the right targets for the legal action.

The legal dispute started in 2019, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning that trace amounts of cancer-causing chemical nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) were found in Zantac and the generic equivalent ranitidine, Law360 reports.

The FDA recalled all ranitidine drugs from the market, citing that the drugs could be exposed to unacceptable levels of NDMA when stored at temperatures higher than room temperature.

The drug was then the subject of a slew of lawsuits, including one from a Washington State man who alleged he developed bladder cancer after taking the heartburn medication Zantac and its generic equivalents for a decade. The lawsuits then got folded into an MDL that named companies in the pharmaceutical industry as defendants.

But on Wednesday, Rosenberg cut the MDL down by rejecting the claims that the retailers and pharmacies had negligently caused exposure to the carcinogen. The federal judge also dismissed distributors from the MDL.

“(T)he defendants are large companies in the business of ensuring that drugs are properly transported and stored and, if they are alleged to have systematically failed in that core purpose for forty years, that is a weighty allegation that must be accompanied with at least one concrete allegation of breach to become plausible,” the judge said.

“The (amended master personal injury complaint) lacks any such allegation.”

Rosenberg added that two of the three key breach of duty allegations made by the consumers were “upon information and belief,” adding that the consumers had had enough time “to engage in discovery” and find proof of “whether the defendants systemically exposed (the drug) to heat or failed to implement policies to ensure otherwise.”

Rosenberg also dismissed the consumers’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claim against brand name manufacturers, Law360 reported.

Sanofi SA, Pfizer Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., and GlaxoSmithKline PLC — as well as generic-drug makers and distributors — are accused of false advertising, failure to warn and other claims related to the NDMA in Zantac and ranitidine in the MDL

Did you take Zantac? What do you think about the Zantac MDL? Let us know in the comments section!

The consumers are represented by Tracy A. Finken of Anapol Weiss, Robert C. Gilbert of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert, Michael L. McGlamry of Pope McGlamry PC and Adam Pulaski of Pulaski Kherkher PLLC.

The retail and pharmacy defendants are represented by Sarah E. Johnson of Barnes & Thornburg LLP as well as by attorneys with McGuire Woods LLP, DLA Piper LLP, Husch Blackwell LLP, Falkenberg Ives LLP, Schaenhorst Ast Kennard Griffin PC, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, Trenam Kemker Scharf Barkin Frye O’Neill & Mullis PA, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, Mrack Fitzgerald Rose Konopka Thomas & Weiss PA and Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.

The distributors are represented by Andrew D. Kaplan of Crowell & Moring LLP along with attorneys from Clarke Silverglate PA, Blank Rome LLP, Cosio Law Group and Wicker Smith O’Hara McCoy & Ford PA.The Zantac Multidistrict Litigation is In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 9:20-md-02924, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Takeda Broke Antitrust Laws by Delaying Anti-Constipation Drug, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges
• Johnson & Johnson Will Pay $230M to Settle Opioid Marketing Claims, Won’t Face Trial
• Pfizer Halts Distribution of Chantix After Finding Carcinogen
• Athira Pharma Hit With Three Class Action Lawsuits for Alleged SEC Violations