Zantac (Ranitidine) Cancer Products Liability Litigation

Zantac, one of the best-selling heartburn medications in history, was pulled from U.S. markets in April 2020 after the FDA discovered that its active ingredient, ranitidine, could degrade over time into NDMA — a chemical classified as a probable human carcinogen. Plaintiffs in this massive multidistrict litigation (MDL) allege that the pharmaceutical manufacturers who made and sold Zantac for decades knew or should have known about this instability and the resulting cancer risk, yet failed to warn consumers or healthcare providers. The MDL consolidates tens of thousands of individual personal injury cases before Judge Robin Rosenberg.

In December 2022, Judge Rosenberg issued a sweeping exclusion of plaintiffs' general causation experts, effectively gutting the federal MDL cases — a decision that forced many plaintiffs to pursue claims in state courts instead. Major defendants including Sanofi and GSK have since reached confidential settlements with certain plaintiffs, while litigation continues vigorously in state courts in California, Delaware, and Illinois. Plaintiffs who developed bladder cancer have seen the strongest scientific support for their claims. The litigation represents one of the largest pharmaceutical mass torts of the decade, with total settlement exposure potentially exceeding several billion dollars across all venues.