https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-zantac-scare-and-junk-science-federal-judge-valisure-lawsuit-ranitidine-cancer-11670537783?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
The press typically treats lawsuits against business as inherently righteous and amplifies the junk science behind them. So in case you missed it, a federal judge on Tuesday dismissed claims that the once top-selling heartburn medication Zantac causes cancer in a debunking for the ages.
A few years ago, the small lab Valisure generated headlines after purportedly finding astronomical levels of the cancer-causing chemical NDMA in Zantac (ranitidine). The Food and Drug Administration’s daily limit for NDMA is 96 nanograms, and Valisure claimed to have found levels exceeding 3,000,000 ng. Talk about causing heartburn.
The same day that Valisure announced a “Citizen Petition” with the FDA urging a recall of ranitidine, numerous lawsuits were filed against drug manufacturers. This suggests coordination between plaintiff attorneys and Valisure. The FDA investigated and initiated a recall after finding NDMA in some pills that exceeded 96 ng.
But as Judge Robin Rosenberg notes in her 341-page ruling, the FDA daily limit is “conservative”—equivalent to a meal of grilled meat. “If one were to consume 96 ng of NDMA every day, for 70 years in succession, the risk of cancer would be 1 in 100,000, or .001%,” and “even the highest-tested pill [by the FDA] showed NDMA at a tiny fraction of the level reported by Valisure.”
This important context was left out of lawsuits and press reports. Ditto that the FDA found Valisure’s lab equipment created NDMA. It gets worse, as Judge Rosenberg details. Valisure heated the ranitidine to 266 degrees Fahrenheit—well above the roughly 98 degree temperature found in the human body—to achieve its test result of 3,000,000 ng.