August 1, 2020 – The Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated Sanofi-Aventis US LLC and GlaxoSmithKline LLC regarding the allegations that the heartburn drug, Zantac, caused cancer. The DOJ and U.S. Attorney’s Office were specifically interested in whether these companies violated the False Claims Act by failing to reveal their knowledge about the presence of NDMA in their product.
The probes began in July, 2020 and during that time the New Mexico Attorney General also filed a suit against several Zantac manufacturers for violating the False Advertising Act, the Unfair Practices Act, and other laws.
Although Zantac cases have already been consolidated in the MDL in Southern Florida, attorneys for 40 plaintiffs in California were separately attempting to consolidate their cases consolidated there, also.
Cancers being attributed to Zantac include testicular, bladder, prostate, kidney, and thyroid. The claims also state that makers of the heartburn drug have known about its potential to cause injuries since the 1980s and that some of the manufacturers even used efforts to wrongfully end those clinical research studies.
Zantac manufacturers continued to deny these claims asserted against them that their heartburn drug caused cancer and contended that there was no causal link between Zantac and cancer.
Reference: Konnath, H. (2020, July 30). Sanofi and GSK Face DOJ Probes Over Zantac Cancer Risk. August 02, 2020, www.law360.com/articles/1297127/sanofi-and-gsk-face-doj-probes-over-zantac-cancer-risk
