US FDA investigates heartburn drug Zantac as it may be carcinogenic

Zantac was once the top-selling drug in the world and has been in the market for 35 years

The US Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether the popular heartburn drug Zantac causes carcinogens to form in the bodies of users, in an effort to fully understand the risks posed by the already recalled drug, the agency’s spokesman said on Thursday. 

The issue of whether ranitidine, commonly known as Zantac, causes levels of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) to rise in users’ bodies has been raised previously by Valisure, an online pharmacy that originally flagged the potential contamination of ranitidine to the FDA.

Zantac, sold over-the-counter in the United States by French drugmaker Sanofi SA (SASY.PA), and some of its