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

fiercepharma.com

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

#21

Post by mysterypie »

> 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.

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

#22

Post by blindriver »

mysterypie wrote: post #21

> 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 fil…

I've ordered medication from them because they test to make sure that there's no impurities. It's not that much more expensive and I would gladly pay to know there's no extra chemicals in there that could give me cancer.

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

#23

Post by hammock »

throwaway29812 wrote: post #9
hammock wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What risks have all those studies found in COVID vaccines?

Extremely low instances of complications. The same complications exist in far higher rates with COVID itself.

What complications?

>The same complications exist in far higher rates with COVID itself.

Is that relevant if most people who get the jab also later get covid?

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

#24

Post by radicaldreamer »

blindriver wrote: post #22
mysterypie wrote: post #21

> 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 fil…

I've ordered medication from them because they test to make sure that there's no impurities. It's not that much more expensive and I would gladly pay to know there's no extra chemicals in there that could give me cancer.

Wow, I love that they do this. A few online nootropics suppliers do the same for the supplements they provide but I guess "legit" pharmacies just trust whatever they get from their suppliers usually.

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

#25

Post by blindriver »

hammock wrote: post #7
jjeaff wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except we aren't just trusting the pharma companies. In the case of COVID vaccines, it is one of the most broadly studied things on the planet at this point. If we had this much money and this many eyes on studying and testing Zantac, I have no doubt they wouldn't have been able to keep the cancer risks secret.

What risks have all those studies found in COVID vaccines?

As mentioned by the CDC, boys between the ages of 12-17 have a much higher risk of getting myocarditis from the COVID vaccine (about 1 in 5000), and this risk diminishes as you get older. No one knows why, and no one appears to be studying why.

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

#26

Post by bsuvc »

eikenberry wrote: post #19
bsuvc wrote: post #14

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 th…

I read that it is only carcinogenic if stored improperly, which was one of the reasons it stayed available for as long as it did. The article doesn't seem to counter this idea. Do you have any references on the not heat-exposed risks?

No. I had heard Zantac was recalled due to cancer risk, but didn't know it was related to how it was stored until now.

It's paywalled, but this seems to be referenced by a lot of reports:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-02/carcinoge...

Maybe someone else has the actual source.

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

#27

Post by zerocrates »

eikenberry wrote: post #19
bsuvc wrote: post #14

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 th…

I read that it is only carcinogenic if stored improperly, which was one of the reasons it stayed available for as long as it did. The article doesn't seem to counter this idea. Do you have any references on the not heat-exposed risks?

My understanding is that the carcinogen (NDMA) builds up over time even with storage at recommended temperatures, though increased temperature makes it build up much faster. That's what the FDA said when they pulled it from the market.

How old your ranitidine would have to be to have too-high NDMA level without higher heat, I haven't seen any specifics around that.

I imagine they could have instead instituted limits about temperature of storage and transport, and chop down the expiration dates, and add big warnings for consumers to actually respect the dates, not keep them in cars, etc... though the market reality that there are several other H2 blockers out there that haven't been shown to have the NDMA issue, not to mention PPIs, likely meant that just pulling ranitidine was the better call.

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

#28

Post by Willish42 »

blindriver wrote: post #25
hammock wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What risks have all those studies found in COVID vaccines?

As mentioned by the CDC, boys between the ages of 12-17 have a much higher risk of getting myocarditis from the COVID vaccine (about 1 in 5000), and this risk diminishes as you get older. No one knows why, and no one appears to be studying why.

> No one knows why, and no one appears to be studying why.

This is so false. Took literally one Google search to find a study about "why" and the relationship to myocarditis and Covid 19: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/08/22/covid-19-infection-...

Viral infections are one of the top causes for myocarditis. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/myocarditis/s...

Vaccines work by stimulating one's immune system response in ways similar to infection, they are literally designed to trigger the same immuno response in a safe way to prevent severe illness from future exposure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine

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

#29

Post by mikeyouse »

blindriver wrote: post #25
hammock wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What risks have all those studies found in COVID vaccines?

As mentioned by the CDC, boys between the ages of 12-17 have a much higher risk of getting myocarditis from the COVID vaccine (about 1 in 5000), and this risk diminishes as you get older. No one knows why, and no one appears to be studying why.

Just because you don’t know why doesn’t mean “no one knows why”. Myocarditis is a well known risk factor in vaccines and the Covid studies explicitly tested different dosages to determine the lowest effective dose to minimize that risk.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT04405076

It’s pretty impressive how weird antivaxxers have convinced millions of people to not take vaccines based on their ignorance of the subject but here we are.

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