Pfizer Agrees to Settle More Than 10,000 Zantac Lawsuits Alleging Antacid Caused Cancer
The main ingredient in Zantac is a probable human carcinogen; acid reflux is caused by low stomach acid; and Pfizer's COVID vaccine doesn't cause heart problems, cancer, or blood clots.
Pfizer, Inc. has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits alleging it concealed the risk of cancer associated with a popular heartburn drug taken by millions of people, according to Bloomberg.
Pfizer says it will continue to “vigorously" defend itself against Zantac lawsuits, as the company believes they are not supported by reliable evidence, will “explore opportunistic settlements of certain cases,” and has "settled certain cases.”
Moreover, Pfizer is “confident” that its Zantac products, which were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), did not cause cancer when used as directed.
Pfizer is following the lead of French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which recently settled roughly 4,000 U.S. cases for $100 million over claims it failed to warn that Zantac could cause cancer. Other companies involved in similar litigation include Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which reportedly faces more than 79,000 lawsuits.
Independent Research Finds Carcinogen in Zantac, Not FDA
Glaxo Holdings, now part of GSK, received FDA approval for Zantac in 1983. When its patent expired in 1997, Pfizer obtained rights to sell the antacid from 1998 to 2006. It has since been marketed and sold by numerous pharmaceutical companies.
Valisure, a company that provides independent quality assurance, in 2019 found concerning amounts of nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in Zantac and its generic “ranitidine.” NDMA is a probable human carcinogen and may cause severe liver damage.
Let’s look at this cute little chart from the CDC’s Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on the health effects of NDMA in animals following oral exposure:
An impressive amount of research has connected NDMA to numerous types of cancer, fetal and neonatal mortality, and liver damage.
In fact, NDMA’s carcinogenicity has been widely recognized since the late 80s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Meanwhile, the FDA, which has an obligation to ensure a drug is safe and effective for use, allowed people to pop the multi-billion-dollar drug for 40 years like a Pez in a dispenser and led people to believe that too much stomach acid is the cause of heartburn and reflux. (It’s actually the opposite.)
When Valisure informed the FDA that its independent testing showed the drug was contaminated with NDMA impurities, the FDA, widely known to be, in part, funded by the makers of Zantac, did not issue a recall, citing a “lack of research” to support the assertion.
However, American retailers CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid began pulling ranitidine from their shelves—likely because they saw the writing on the wall and do not enjoy the same legal immunity as the FDA.
When the agency finally acknowledged the presence of “unacceptable levels” of NDMA in ranitidine samples, it still didn’t initiate a recall. Instead, it merely advised companies to stop selling the drug.
It wasn’t until April 2020 that the agency finally called for the removal of all prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) ranitidine drugs from the market. The FDA not only confirmed high levels of NDMA in ranitidine but found the level could increase the longer the product sits on the shelf.
How many people were injured between 1983 and 2020 because the FDA failed to do its job? Nobody knows, but this drug (along with COVID-19 vaccines) has probably played a role in skyrocketing cancer rates.
Pfizer Claims Indemnity for Nonexistant Harm Caused by Zantac
In a statement published on April 11, 2022, by Pfizer, the company said it has “significant defenses” to the litigation, and there are “significant legal and factual issues that remain to be addressed by the courts.”
It also claimed to have “substantial indemnification claims against others, which have been acknowledged by several manufacturers in their disclosures” and that the outcome of the litigation is “not likely to be material to Pfizer.”
“Indemnification.”
This seems to be a popular concept for Pfizer, which ensured it was indemnified for potential harms caused by its experimental heart darts and made countries sign secret contracts promising indemnity while the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic loomed overhead.
The U.S. then spent billions of tax dollars on contracts to purchase vaccines, market the shots, and rehabilitate Pfizer’s image while claiming the vaccine was safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 and its transmission. It’s not. It doesn’t. And it never did.
Reflux is Caused by Low Stomach Acid
A final point that hasn’t even begun to surface among those trying to overcome the cognitive dissonance between Zantac and cancer is the conspiracy that gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), heartburn, indigestion, and other related conditions are actually caused by too little stomach acid.
Like most conspiracy theories, this one is also true. The “stomach acid is the bad guy” mentality is another glaring example of how “science” got it wrong and money dictated medicine. The fine people at the FDA likely knew low stomach acid was the real culprit behind these conditions and that taking a medication to lower it further would have catastrophic effects, but at this point, acid-lowering medications were a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Even Cleveland Clinic recognizes that many digestive problems are actually caused by too little stomach acid:
“In the U.S., people most often attribute their digestive problems to hyperchlorhydria, and they often use medication to suppress their stomach acid. But in fact, symptoms of chronic acid reflux, laryngopharyngeal reflux, or heartburn can also be caused by hypochlorhydria,” Cleveland Clinic states on its website.
Stomach acid is necessary for digestion and absorption of protein, minerals, and vitamin B12. It’s also a line of defense against pathogens that enter your body through your mouth.
“When your body is no longer able to break down and absorb these nutrients, you end up with undigested food and nutritional deficiencies,” the website states.
Symptoms of LOW STOMACH ACID include gas, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, undigested food in stools, reflux, heartburn, brittle fingernails, hair loss, paleness, fatigue, weakness, memory loss, headaches, and tingling in the hands and feet.
Guess what’s the leading cause of this low stomach acid problem? Antacids like Zantac, which eventually cause the acid-secreting glands in the stomach to stop working entirely.
You know what they say, “Follow the science.”
But in this case, maybe you should question it.
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