In a recent filing from lawyers representing over 70,000 former users of Zantac, Sanofi is accused of “widespread” email deletion related to its 2019 recall of the heartburn medication, which preceded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) full ban in 2020. Lawyers claim that this tampering “resulted in the delay and/or postponement of many key Sanofi depositions.” They have asked for more time to prepare for these trials, which are set to begin next year.
A spokesperson for Sanofi revealed that the company “did not intentionally destroy any emails related to the Zantac litigation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false. Sanofi has provided hundreds of thousands of pages of relevant discovery to the plaintiffs, including internal emails, test results, safety assessments, and correspondence with regulatory authorities.”
Zantac Recall Timeline
In late 2019, Sanofi agreed to recall over-the-counter Zantac in the United States and Canada due to possible contamination with suspected carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). By April 2020, the FDA had removed the drug and all generic versions from shelves. In August 2020, Sanofi shared that it was the focus of a Department of Justice probe over potential violations of the False Claims Act in relation to the Zantac recalls.
Other drugmakers, including GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim as well as multiple generic companies, are also accused in the Zantac lawsuits of failing to alert customers to the potential harm.
For more information about the Zantac recall and lawsuits, contact us today.
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Tracy Everhart
Tracy Everhart is the Editor for Drug Law Journal. A highly-trained and certified medical professional, Tracy is also an accomplished medical writer. After spending years on the front lines of the medical profession, Tracy now devotes her expertise and skills to researching and reporting on new drugs and devices that enter the market, as well as their side-effects and the real-life stories involved. Prior to joining Drug Law Journal, Tracy wrote for benchmark online healthcare resources focused on families and, in particular, women’s health issues. Tracy holds post-graduate degrees from both the American College of Healthcare Sciences and the Yale School of Nursing. She is also a graduate of both Hampshire College, where she studied microbiology and the University of South Carolina school of nursing.