A woman from Ridgeway, Virginia, is the latest to file a lawsuit against the makers of heartburn medication Zantac, claiming that the drug gave her esophageal cancer.
Deborah Haskins said that she began using Zantac in 2005, taking at least one 75mg tablet a day. She was later diagnosed with esophageal cancer, apparently due to the drug. Following this, Haskins has decided to sue the drug’s makers for battery due to the failure of warning consumers of the risks.
Haskins filed a lawsuit on Jan. 3 against several pharmaceutical companies including French drugmaker Sanofi, according to the complaint, which was first reported by DailyMail.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it had found N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA, and the generic name ranitidine, in Zantac. The agency said at the time that the chemical was “classified as a probable human carcinogen.”
Sanofi, which sold Zantac, voluntarily recalled the medication just a month later after the issue went viral.
In her lawsuit, Haskins alleges that Sanofi and other drugmakers that sold the heartburn medication knew or should have known, that Zantac produces high quantities of NDMA in the human body, according to the complaint.
Haskins, who reportedly started taking 1 Zantac 75 tablet every day in 2005, is suing the companies for damages including lost income, medical expenses, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life, according to the lawsuit.
Her complaint is among many in the United States that say Zantac caused cancers including stomach cancer, liver cancer, and kidney cancer, DailyMail reported.
Following the report, the FDA announced that other heartburn and blood pressure medications were recalled over potential cancer risks.
Before the FDA announcement, Zantac was a best-selling drug. It was worth about $128.9 million in 2018. Haskins’s lawsuit joins about a dozen others against the Paris-based manufacturer.
The FDA has been investigating NDMA since 2018.
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