Sanofi Accused Of Deleting Zantac Recall Emails

Sanofi Accused Of Deleting Zantac Recall Emails

Introduction

Lawyers of more than 70,000 former patients who sued Sanofi accused that the company has deleted email links related to a 2019 recall of the heartburn medication Zantac.

The mails deleted by Sanofi included some mails from the head of regulatory affairs for the company’s U.S. Consumer Healthcare division. It will be difficult for the consumers without the emails to prove that Zantac contains a suspected carcinogen.

The lawyers for the patients have requested the judge to give them some more time to prepare for their first trials, which will begin next year. The lawyers further explained that the deleted emails were very important and it will delay in getting the key Sanofi testimonies.

The authorities of Sanofi stated that the company will thoroughly investigate the email destruction and will also provide a detailed report to the judge overseeing the Zantac cases.

Although the company has already provided required documents of relevant discovery to the plaintiffs, it intentionally disclosed the mishandling of certain emails requested by the plaintiffs.

Zantac was first introduced in the 1980s and was most widely used as a medication for the treatment of heartburn and acid reflux. It was available as generic ranitidine and widely used by Americans.

It was discovered in late 2019, that the ranitidine-based medication contained high levels of a human carcinogen, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which can get activated if the drug passes through the body or the pills are stored under certain conditions.

There are thousands of Zantac lawsuits filed by the consumers against Sanofi and other manufacturers of ranitidine-based drugs. All the defendants in the lawsuits allege that the exposure to NDMA produced by ranitidine caused them to develop breast cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer and other injuries. Sanofi responded to the issue by stating the Zantac brand is not as toxic as the chemical that might have caused the problems for the consumers and still has some reputation in the market.

The spokesperson for Sanofi announced on April 28 that the company will launch a new product named Zantac 360. The company even notified that it will use famotidine, which is the active ingredient in Pepcid instead of ranitidine to manufacture the new product.

The company will release two versions of the new Zantac drug on the U.S. market in June 2021. The products include a 10 mg famotidine “Original Strength” version, and a 20 mg “Maximum Strength” version.

The spokesperson for Sanofi defending the company said that the data loss was not intentional and the company is making the necessary arrangements to gather as much as data possible from alternative sources. The company is confident about the safety of Zantac and this issue will not have any impact on Sanofi's strong defenses in the litigation.