According to the plaintiff's lawyer and the drugmakers identified as defendants in the first lawsuit involving the heartburn medication Zantac that is set to go to trial, the plaintiff has decided to withdraw the case.
The decision comes days after investors worry about hundreds of lawsuits alleging the medicine, which U.S. authorities took from the market in 2020, caused cancer, and hurt shares of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi SA, Pfizer Inc, and Haleon Plc.
In Illinois state court, the first trial in one of those cases was slated to start the following Monday. The complainant claimed that using over-the-counter Zantac caused him to acquire esophageal cancer.
An attorney representing Bayer stated that although her client was unable to continue due to personal health concerns, he was still entitled to resubmit his case within a year.
Both defendants in the lawsuit, GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim, expressed satisfaction that it had been dismissed and that Zantac was safe based on the available scientific data.
Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Sanofi have all offered Zantac at various periods since it was first promoted by a competitor of GSK. Haleon includes consumer health assets that were once owned by GSK and Pfizer and were spun off as an independent business last month.
The 2020 recall came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration looked into whether the primary ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, raises blood levels of the potentially cancer-causing substance N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) among users.
A hearing about the admissibility of expert testimony in future trials is planned for September 20 in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, where around 2,000 claims have been consolidated.
The first federal court proceedings are scheduled to begin sometime in next year, although the case may be effectively resolved earlier if the corporations receive a relatively favorable verdict on the evidence.
