The U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and medical monitoring claims in the Zantac litigation have been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg.
RICO and medical monitoring claims, which the judge dismissed, sought compensation for diagnostic tests that detect cancer. The judge even excluded the distributors and pharmacies, including Rite Aid and CVS, from the litigation and personal injury claims.
The court's ruling came as the federal court wants to focus the litigations more on the manufacturers, including Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, and Pfizer Inc. A spokesperson for Pfizer said that the company is pleased with the judge's ruling.
The plaintiffs' attorney said that a vast majority of the claims would be in motion, and the ruling will impact 100,000 people who suffer from cancer caused due to the exposure to carcinogen NDMA present in Zantac.
The attorneys even argued that manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Sanofi tried to cover up the dangers and risks associated with Zantac usage even though there were sufficient pieces of evidence against the heartburn drug being linked to NDMA.
In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified that certain ranitidine medicines such as Zantac include a possible carcinogen, known as N-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, post to which Sanofi removed Zantac from the market.
U.S. District Judge Robin L in Florida is overlooking the Zantac lawsuits under MDL No: 2924. Currently, more than 1,400 lawsuits are pending from the Zantac users contracted with cancer, and at least 70,000 more claims are recorded in the court against the drug.
