Canada Zantac Class Action Filed Over Unsafe Levels of Carcinogen

A Canadian class action lawsuit aims to hold numerous drug companies accountable for allegedly selling heartburn medication Zantac that was contaminated with a carcinogen.

The Zantac class action lawsuit was filed by M. Royer, a Quebec resident who reportedly purchased Zantac that was contaminated.

He aims to represent a Class of all Canadian residents who purchased the allegedly contaminated drug, and a subclass of all Quebec residents who did the same.

The Canada Zantac class action lawsuit names multiple drug companies as defendants, including Sanofi Consumer Health, GlaxoSmithKline, Sandoz Canada, Pharmascience, Apotex, Pro Doc, Sanis Health, and Sivem Pharmacueticals. The companies are all allegedly makers of contaminated Zantac, also sold in its generic form ranitidine.

According to Royer, Zantac is the best-selling drug in history due to the drug companies’ marketing. Allegedly, Zantac’s popularity in Canada was only possible because the drug companies misrepresented it to consumers as being a safe way to treat heartburn and gained profits from this deception.

The companies reportedly sell the drug throughout Canada without disclosing that it may contain N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a possible carcinogen. Royer stresses that the World Health Organization has deemed NDMA “clearly carcinogenic,” and Health Canada calls it a “probable human carcinogen.”

The carcinogen can appear in some foods and can be formed in the stomach during digestion of foods that contain alkylamine, a naturally occurring substance. However, Royer says that NDMA may be present in high levels in Zantac drugs and its presence may be dangerous to consumers. Allegedly, reports have discovered levels of NDMA in Zantac that may be as much as 26,000 times greater than safe levels.

Royer stresses that this could put many Canadian consumers at risk because many take Zantac over long periods of time and this extended use may increase the amount of NDMA that consumers could ingest. The plaintiff supports this by saying that when Zantac was tested “in conditions simulating the human stomach,” the amount of NMDA discovered was around 3,171 times more than what can be safely ingested on a daily basis. 

The Canada Zantac class action lawsuit says that the drug companies knew or should have known that the drug was contaminated before they put it on the market.

Allegedly, multiple studies were published during the time that the companies manufactured and distributed the drug that showed the contamination. However, the companies reportedly failed to warn consumers despite their knowledge.

Similar concerns over contamination have affected U.S. consumers, as well. The drug has been subjected to some recalls as a result of the potential contamination.

Have you used Zantac or ranitidine? Let us know in the comment section below.

Royer is represented by Andrea Grass of the Consumer Law Group Inc.

The Canada Zantac NDMA Contamination Class Action Lawsuit is M. Royer v. Sanofi Consumer Health Inc., et al., Case No. 500-06-001023-197, in the Canada Superior Court in the Providence of Quebec for the District of Montreal.

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