from Hacker News

Zantac’s maker kept quiet about cancer risks for 40 years

by N_A_T_E on 2/15/23, 11:34 PM with 126 comments

• by bsuvc on 2/16/23, 12:44 AM

  It's not just that it causes cancer, but it's that improper storage (heat exposure) increases the risk of it causing cancer, and when informed of that, GSK decided it was not worth doing anything about it.

  > GSK's leadership was warned on several occasions about the storage issue, but it opted against making any changes to existing plans.

  In a way, this makes it worse, because they could have taken action to limit the risk to people, but chose not to, presumably to save money or to avoid bad publicity.

• by mysterypie on 2/16/23, 1:07 AM

  > Intense public scrutiny on Zantac started in 2019, when an online pharmacy found high levels of a likely carcinogen in the drug and its generics.

  And the linked article says:

  > Valisure discovered the link of Zantac and its generics to the carcinogen NDMA during its routine testing of every batch of every medication, and first notified the FDA of its initial findings in June of 2019. On September 13th, Valisure filed a detailed petition with the Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to recall all products containing ranitidine.

  How in the world is it profitable for an online pharmacy to do this? It's great, but honestly who would pay extra to an online pharmacy to do this testing? Would most people even believe an online pharmacy that said that they did such testing? I'd love to know how they survive.

• by ivraatiems on 2/16/23, 12:48 AM

  I used to take ranitidine... one day, it suddenly stopped being available at pharmacies. My physician switched me to famotidine, a similar medication, because there were "supply issues" for the foreseeable future.

  That was almost two years ago. This is the first I'm hearing about this. So for all I know, I was exposed to an unknown amount of carcinogen for years without being told anything about it even after that information was discovered.

  What's my recourse?

• by refurb on 2/16/23, 1:48 AM

  The cancer causing agent in Zantac is a N-nitrosamine.

  These are the same class of chemicals that are found in cured meat and they are present in an awful lot of food because they are produced during fermentation. Bacon, beer, even a side product of drinking water treatment.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4609975/

• by LazyMans on 2/16/23, 2:25 AM

  I was telling a friend how unfortunate it is that I live in the south and kept a bottle of this in my car for over a year. I have pretty bad heartburn issues and used to take it only on occasion. Maybe I'll get $35 from a settlement to go with my cancer one day.

• by monero-xmr on 2/16/23, 12:20 AM

  Interesting counterpoint is that a judge recently lambasted the entire body of scientific evidence linking ranitidine (Zantac) to cancer and tossed all the cases.

  https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/judge-dismisses-ranitidi...

  If they could find a way to ensure the impurity didn’t exist, I would certainly buy ranitidine again. I found it was the most effective antacid for me.

• by trashface on 2/16/23, 12:21 PM

  Anyone know why famotidine, a similar med (aka Pepcid) doesn't have this problem? Or does it, and we just haven't heard about it? I took famotidine for years, ironically I kept hearing during that time that Zantac was more effective, but never switched.

• by hulitu on 2/16/23, 11:58 AM

  > Zantac’s maker kept quiet about cancer risks for 40 years

  The real problem is that they get a slap on the wrist from the regulator and the business continues as usual.

• by h2odragon on 2/16/23, 12:05 AM

  Of course they did. People wouldn't buy their shit if they'd said it'd give you cancer.

  Oh wait. Maybe they would. everything gives you cancer now, doesn't it?

• by elromulous on 2/16/23, 1:41 AM

  And of course, in the US, none of these people will be brought to justice.

• by KaiserPro on 2/16/23, 11:46 AM

  This was new information to me, but it appears in the NHS swift action has been taken: https://www.cambridgeshireandpeterboroughccg.nhs.uk/EasySite...

  [PDF warning]

  it also has the wholesale prices on there.

• by washywashy on 2/16/23, 5:02 AM

  Anecdotal but a relative of mine used Zantac pretty much daily for many years. Died of pancreatic cancer in their 50s.

• by kerkeslager on 2/16/23, 1:32 PM

  GSK didn't make decisions, people made decisions, and those people need to be named and held responsible.

  Putting this on GSK means that the people who knowingly sold a cancer-causing drug while hiding the risks get away without any consequences. Given this went on for 40 years, probably a lot of those people are retired, and won't even lose pay, bonuses, share price, etc.

  Meanwhile, assuming this leads to any sort of lawsuits, fines, and lost sales, the people who will pay the price if GSK is held responsible will be shareholders, who likely had no visibility into these decisions, and workers who will be laid off, again without having had any role in these decisions.

  This system is fundamentally broken. It's not just a small loophole that can be closed: the entire thing is a loophole that allows sociopaths to exit with the profits of wrongdoing while workers and shareholders pay the consequences. We need to stop letting bad people hide behind corporations.

  Name the people responsible, and hold them responsible.

• by testemailfordg2 on 2/17/23, 12:17 PM

  Money over people's lives....Countless loved ones lost over 40 years across the world....Probably need a nuremberg styled trial...

• by ccn0p on 2/16/23, 12:15 AM

  what's crazy to me is how terrible of a track record big pharma has in being even moderately uncorrupted, and yet when it comes to vaccines, sprinkle in a bit of fear and suddenly we're supposed to trust their studies and superbowl commercials.