If you are considering bringing a Zantac case, take a look at this blog post about statutes of limitation in drug cases, as well as this one about the long and windy road of pharmaceutical cases.
Zantac and its active ingredient ranitidine have been sold in the United States since 1983. Originally, Zantac was only available as a prescription. Later, FDA approved it for sale over-the-counter. Tens of thousands of people used Zantac every year as a treatment for acid indigestion, heartburn, or sour stomach.
The Danger
In September 2019, a pharmacy named Valisure notified the FDA that it ran tests on ranitidine (the active ingredient in Zantac). Valisure discovered that ranitidine degrades into N-Nitrosodimethylamine “NDMA.” That is classified as a “probable human carcinogen.” Thereafter, manufacturers of Zantac started voluntarily taking their products off the shelf. On April 1, 2020, FDA required all Zantac products removed from store shelves because of the dangers associated with Zantac.
Zantac Law Suits
In late 2019, Kim Beck and her team started filing Zantac cases in federal courts across the country. Other attorneys filed suit as well. Soon, the lawyers realized just how big this case was going to become. We knew then that the most efficient, best way to handle these cases was to have them consolidated in front of one judge. As a result, we moved for consolidation and our motion was granted. All of the federal cases in the country were sent to Judge Robin Rosenberg. She has entered hundreds of orders. Her most significant orders can be found here.
The Census
The judge understands that (1) keeping litigation costs down and (2) maintaining our clients' privacy are goals of all the plaintiffs' attorneys. Instead of actually filing a case, the judge said that we could file a census form for each plaintiff.
The census form gives us all the benefits of litigation without much of the downside. First, it is completely confidential. Second, any person on the census can participate in settlement. Third, they are also entitled to all the information obtained through discovery. Fourth and most importantly, filing a census form stops the clock on the statute of limitations.
Discovery
We have been keeping the pressure on the pharmaceutical companies. So far, they have provided us with 300,000,000 (three hundred million) pages of documents that are relevant to the law suit. We have also demanded to depose nearly 100 company witnesses.
I describe this as "the boring part" for the clients. For the lawyers, this part is a lot of work! It takes a long time, but we are really working hard to get through discovery as fast as we can.
Timeline for Zantac Cases
October 2019 - First cases filed.
February 2020 - All federal cases are consolidated for discovery and sent to Judge Robin Rosenberg in the Southern District of Florida.
April 2020 - Judge Rosenberg tells counsel that we can add a plaintiff to the census and that plaintiff will be treated like the plaintiff has a filed case.
September 2020 - Statute of limitations runs on most cases from Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee.
October 2020 to the present - Plaintiffs' counsel reviews 3 hundred million pages of documents produced by the defendants.
January 2021 to the present - Plaintiffs' counsel deposes 75 defense witnesses.
July 2021 - Judge Rosenberg dismisses cases against generic drug makers. She also dismisses many class action cases and other cases that do not involve cancer. None of BLC's cases were directly affected.
January 2022 - Discovery continues, but we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.