After more than a year of signaling that settlement was likely, Sanofi-Aventis US LLC and Sanofi US Services Inc. have struck agreements in two Connecticut lawsuits claiming that the blockbuster heartburn medication Zantac and its generic equivalents degraded into a cancer-causing compound.
Notices filed Thursday in the Waterbury Judicial District confirm that the French drugmaker reached settlements in principle in both cases — one involving six plaintiffs and the other involving 10 plaintiffs. Terms of the accords remain under wraps. The filings state that the cases will be withdrawn once the settlements are formalized.
A Legal Fight Over Innovator Liability
The lawsuits revolved around a contentious legal theory known as innovator liability, which seeks to hold brand-name manufacturers accountable for injuries allegedly caused by generic versions of their drugs. Plaintiffs argue that because the big pharmaceutical companies control the warning labels, they should bear responsibility regardless of which pill a consumer actually took.
Last year, Sanofi told Judge W. Glen Pierson that a ruling on innovator liability would help steer talks toward resolution. In August 2023, Pierson ruled that Sanofi could be sued in Connecticut courts, but left the thorny liability issue unresolved, saying it would need to be addressed later in litigation.
