{"id":392661,"date":"2026-04-11T03:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392661\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T03:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T03:30:07","slug":"class-action-suit-says-ct-based-zantac-maker-turned-a-blind-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/392661\/","title":{"rendered":"Class action suit says CT-based\u00a0Zantac maker turned \u2018a blind eye\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

WATERBURY \u2013 A group of 95 people with cancer diagnoses has filed a class action lawsuit in state Superior Court alleging that Ridgefield<\/a>-based pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim<\/a> did not warn the public about cancer risks associated with the recalled heartburn drug Zantac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Boehringer Ingelheim] had little incentive to investigate the dangers in a product that was producing over $1 billion in annual sales,\u201d reads a 64-page complaint filed by a West Haven<\/a> attorney on behalf of the people with cancer. \u201cInstead, [Boehringer Ingelheim] turned a blind eye to the fact that ranitidine transforms, over time and under particular conditions, into \u2026 a well-known cancer-causing compound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ranitidine is the generic version of Zantac, which made headlines in 2020 when the federal Food and Drug Administration issued what amounted to a recall<\/a> due to \u201cunacceptable levels\u201d of \u201ca probable human carcinogen\u201d in the heartburn drug, launching thousands of lawsuits across the country.<\/p>\n

The latest class-action lawsuit in Waterbury Superior Court is a Connecticut case, the lead attorney argues, because \u201csubstantial activities related to \u2026 ranitidine-containing products were performed by [Boehringer Ingelheim] in Connecticut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Boehringer Ingelheim] made decisions regarding the design, testing, regulatory communications and processes, marketing strategy, labeling and warnings content for ranitidine-containing products in the state of Connecticut,\u201d writes attorney Craig Raabe in a Feb. 24 complaint.<\/p>\n

Raabe is referring to the Germany-based company\u2019s U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield \u2013 a 300-acre campus that crosses into Danbury and employs 2,000 people in 14 buildings. In December BI pledged to invest $10 billion in research and development<\/a> in the United States through 2028, part of a \u201cbroad agreement with the Trump Administration\u201d to lower the cost of medicines for American patients.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut lawsuit charges that a Waterbury man and 94 people from other states would not have contracted cancer were it not for BI\u2019s \u201cintentional and\/or reckless disregard for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[The people] are individuals who suffered personal injuries and\/or death as a result of using [Boehringer Ingelheim\u2019s] dangerously defective ranitidine-containing products,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Boehringer Ingelheim had not yet responded to the charges in court by Friday. Officials at the company\u2019s U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.<\/p>\n

The company made national headlines a year ago when a jury in Chicago found in its favor<\/a> following a trial of two men who alleged they developed prostate cancer as a result of taking Zantac.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Boehringer sympathizes with both plaintiffs, the outcome of this case is entirely consistent with the totality of the scientific evidence, which shows that Zantac does not cause any type of cancer,\u201d the company said in a statement, according to a published report.<\/p>\n

BI is no stranger to high profile lawsuits.<\/p>\n

In 2014 the company announced it agreed to pay $650 million<\/a> to settle thousands of state and federal lawsuits questioning the safety and marketing of its blood-thinning drug Pradaxa.<\/p>\n

And in 2012 the federal Justice Department announced Boehringer Ingelheim would pay $95 million<\/a> to settle allegations that the company promoted three drugs for uses that were not medically accepted. The three drugs were Aggrenox, Combivent and Micardis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERBURY \u2013 A group of 95 people with cancer diagnoses has filed a class action lawsuit in state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371,173907],"class_list":{"0":"post-392661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-news-times"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}