Heartburn Meds Linked To Cancer Spur 20 NYC Lawsuits In Single Day

NEW YORK CITY — Twenty New Yorkers who contend a now-banned heartburn medication gave them cancer filed suit against the drug makers Monday in Manhattan's civil court, records show.

Twenty nearly identical, 100-page civil complaints were filed Monday in Manhattan accusing Pfizer and other drugmakers of turning a blind eye to the dangers of Zantac — the branded name for ranitidine — as it reaped them $1 billion a year in sales.

The drugmakers failed to warn doctors and consumers that Zantac could transform into NDMA, a well-known cancer-causing compound with no medicinal purpose other to "induce tumors in animals as part of laboratory experiments," according to the complaints.

The daily allowable limit of NDMA for people is 96 nanograms, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, documents state.

"Yet, in a single dose of Zantac, researchers are discovering over 3 million nanograms of NDMA," the complaints state.

All 20 Zantac users suing the drugmakers were stricken with various forms of cancer, from bladder to colorectal to prostate, that they link directly to regularly taking the medication, sometimes over the course of years, the lawsuits state.

Representatives for Pfizer, which is based in New York City, didn't return a Patch request for comment.

FDA officials pulled Zantac from shelves in 2020 after independent researchers the year before found that ranitidine transforms into NDMA.

But the lawsuits contend that drugmakers going back to 1981 had indications that ranitidine could be dangerous, yet failed to warn or test further.

None of the Zantac users knew the drug's risks until recently, sometimes long after their cancer diagnoses, according to the lawsuits.

"Plaintiff did not learn of the link between Plaintiff’s cancer and ranitidine exposure until recently when Plaintiff heard about the connection of Zantac to NDMA and cancer through advertisements," a lawsuit states.

The lawsuits accuse the drugmakers of failure to warn, negligence, false advertising and other civil causes of action.