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Pfizer Settles 10,000 Zantac Lawsuits Alleging Cancer Link
1:32 PM – Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Pfizer has agreed to financially settle 10,000 lawsuits which allege that the pharmaceutical company did not disclose to patients that possible cancer risks were associated with its anti-heartburn medication Zantac.
This also comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Pfizer “for unlawfully misrepresenting the effectiveness of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine and attempting to censor public discussion of the product” in 2023.
The Zantac lawsuits were filed in state courts across the U.S., but the agreements do not completely resolve Pfizer’s exposure to the claims linking Zantac to cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
Terms of the settlements were not disclosed.
Zantac was introduced into the market in 1983 by Glaxo Holdings, a company that is now part of the GlaxoSmithKline company. In 1988, it was the world’s best selling drug of its kind as patients reported benefits for conditions such as acid reflux, heartburn, and ulcers.
By 1997, Glaxo’s patent for Zantac’s active ingredient, ranitidine, expired.
In the same year, pharmaceutical companies also started working on generic versions of the drug.
However, in 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked drugmakers to pull Zantac and its generic versions of the drug after a cancer-causing compound called NDMA was found in samples.
As a result, thousands of lawsuits began coming in federal and state courts against GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim.
In April, Sanofi reached an agreement in principle to settle 4,000 lawsuits linking Zantac to cancer. Although Sanofi did not disclose the official financial terms of the deal, Bloomberg News reported that the company will pay around $100 million, or $25,000 to each plaintiff.
Meanwhile, a Chicago woman named Angela Valadez, 89, who claimed to have contracted colon cancer after taking Zantac for over 20 years, filed a lawsuit recently and it went to trial last week. She filed the suit against GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim.
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pfizer-reaches-settlement-agreement-on-10000-lawsuits-linking-zantac-medication-to-cancer/
House passes bill allowing ancillary mining activities on public land without minerals present
May 8, 2024 7:31pm
The House Wednesday passed a bill that would allow companies to build roads and support infrastructure for a potential mining operation without having to show a deposit is present.
The Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024 passed 216 to 195. Federal mining law allows companies to mine for valuable minerals, but in 2022, a U.S. appellate court ruled that companies are not guaranteed the right to use adjacent federal land without a mineral deposit for purposes related to a mining operation.
According to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., the legislation reaffirms long-held practice and precedent that some public land use under a mining claim "inherently accompanies exploration and extraction activities for other ancillary, mining-support activities."
“Securing our domestic mineral supply chain is not only critical to our nation’s economic success, but to our national security. Now more than ever, we must ensure we are doing all that we can to increase domestic mineral production and protect the ability to conduct responsible mining activities on federal lands,” Amodei said in a statement.
According to a statement from the Biden administration, the bill would allow private speculators to influence the use of public lands with little or no mining potential, potentially interfering with other uses, such as a solar, wind or transmission project.
“The administration strongly opposes this bill,” the statement said.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/house-passes-bill-allowing-ancillary-mining-activities-public-land-without
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2925/all-actions