US judge rules for pharma groups in cancer litigation over Zantac

An US judge has dismissed thousands of lawsuits claiming that popular heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer, handing a big victory to pharmaceutical companies GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim.

US District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach, Florida, said in an order on Tuesday that the almost 2,500 lawsuits filed in federal court by plaintiffs were based on flawed science, and that the only reliable testing of the blockbuster drug undertaken showed an “unprovable risk of cancer”.

Analysts said the ruling should remove a large portion of the potential liability linked to the Zantac litigation, which investors had feared could lead to tens of billion of dollars of personal injury awards if claimants had proven a link with cancer.

About £30bn was wiped off the value of large pharmaceutical companies in early August following publication of a note by investment bank UBS that flagged a “potential overhang” on Sanofi stock price due to the Zantac litigation.

Morgan Stanley analysts had estimated damages could reach as high as $45bn.

US-listed shares of GSK and Sanofi surged by almost 8 per cent following the ruling.

David Risinger, an analyst at SVB Securities, said the ruling appeared to be “a best-case scenario for the companies”.

“While we can’t rule out appeals . . . or some state court litigation proceeding, the comprehensive dismissal by Judge Rosenberg of the plaintiffs’ arguments is compelling for the defendants,” he said.

The companies could still face thousands of similar personal injury cases filed in state courts, which are being litigated separately from the federal multi-district litigation in Florida.

Zantac, which is the brand name for the drug ranitidine, has been sold by large pharmaceutical companies including GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim over the past 35 years. Several smaller generic companies have also sold versions of the drug.

The four defendants in the litigation denied that using Zantac led to an increased cancer risk and strongly criticised the credibility of a small independent lab that first raised concerns about the link between Zantac and cancer.

Rosenberg said there was no scientist outside the litigation who concluded ranitidine causes cancer and said experts put forward by the plaintiffs had utilised unreliable methodologies to reach their conclusions.

“The plaintiffs’ scientists within this litigation systemically utilised unreliable methodologies with a lack of documentation on how experiments were conducted, a lack of substantiation for analytical leaps, a lack of statistically significant data, and a lack of internally consistent, objective, science-based standards for the even-handed evaluation of data,” the judge wrote in the ruling, which ran more than 300 pages.

GSK said it welcomed the ruling and would respond in more detail as soon as possible.

Brent Wisner, the co-lead liaison counsel for claimants in the Zantac litigation, said he was now focused on pursuing the litigation in state courts.

“We have our first trial scheduled for February 13 2023 in Oakland, California. I feel very confident about the science in our favour . . . Our clients are suffering from all types of cancers and deserve justice.”