Delaware top court will hear drugmakers' appeal to end Zantac lawsuits

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) - Delaware's highest court said on Tuesday it will hear an appeal by GSK and other drugmakers seeking to end more than 70,000 lawsuits claiming discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.

GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim are asking the court to overturn an order by a lower court judge allowing plaintiffs in the lawsuits to offer expert testimony on the alleged cancer link, which the companies argue is not supported by sound scientific methods.

First approved by U.S. regulators in 1983, Zantac became the world's best-selling medicine in 1988 and one of the first to top $1 billion in annual sales. It was sold at different times by the four companies, all of which have faced thousands of lawsuits.

The litigation began after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2020 asked manufacturers to pull the drug off the market over concerns that ranitidine, the active ingredient in Zantac and generic versions of the drug, could degrade into NDMA, a carcinogen, over time or when exposed to heat.

Three Zantac cases so far have gone to trial, with two ending in verdicts for the defense and one with a hung jury.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)