Boynton Beach Woman Sues Manufacturer of Zantac, Claiming It Caused Her Cancer
Scroll to the bottom of any article you read online, and you will find links to websites about the potential dangers of common food ingredients and medications. Most of those are clickbait designed to appeal to the hypochondriac in all of us; the connections between the bogeyman-of-the-week ingredient and the diseases it allegedly causes are tenuous at best. The yellow number five in the seasoning packet in your ramen noodles and in most of your favorite artificially flavored candies is probably not conspiring to kill you, and neither is the ibuprofen that you take for the headaches caused by a job that requires to check your phone constantly during your time off and, perhaps, by so much clickbait. The reason these scare tactics are so effective, though, is that, in recent memory, several popular medications have been taken off the market after studies found them to be too dangerous, but only after they had caused serious illnesses or deaths. If you have suffered serious complications because of a now-recalled prescription drug or over-the-counter medicine, contact a South Florida product liability lawyer.
Details of Jill Goldstein’s Lawsuit
When she was in her twenties, Jill Goldstein of Boynton Beach began taking Zantac (ranitidine) to treat her chronic heartburn, and she continued to do so for the next two decades. In August 2019, at age 44, she received a diagnosis of breast cancer, and she underwent surgery to remove cancer shortly thereafter. The following month, Sanofi, the manufacturer of Zantac, stopped selling the drug in the United States amid reports of elevated levels of an impurity called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is probably carcinogenic in humans. Goldstein found further evidence of a link between Zantac and her cancer when she read a 2008 article that posits a link between ranitidine and breast cancer. In December 2019, she filed a lawsuit against Sanofi.
Goldstein’s lawsuit is the first to allege that Zantac caused her particular type of cancer, the company has received other lawsuits from patients who claimed that the drug harmed them in other ways. Other plaintiffs have claimed that their diagnoses of bladder cancer and stomach cancer are related to Zantac. In the wake of the Zantac recall, the FDA issued a statement saying that further research is being conducted to investigate the possible links between Zantac and various types of cancer. Meanwhile, the FDA tested other widely used over-the-counter heartburn medications, including Nexium, Pepcid, Prevacid, Prilosec, and Tagamet, and they all tested negative for NDMA.
Reach Out to an Attorney Today for Help
You might be able to recover damages for medical costs and pain and suffering if you have suffered adverse effects from a prescription drug. The first step is to contact a Florida product liability lawyer. If you have suffered a serious illness after using a heartburn medication or other type of medication, contact Boynton Beach products liability attorneys at Smith, Ball, Báez & Prather Injury Lawyers for a consultation to see if you have grounds for a lawsuit.
