stock image of Zantac medication
Oakland, CA - A California state court judge will hold a hearing Thursday to determine which experts will be permitted to testify in the upcoming first-in-the-nation bellwether trial over supposed cancer risks associated with the antacid drug Zantac, and the hearing will be webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio M. Grillo will convene a “Sargon” hearing on February 16. A Sargon hearing is the equivalent in California state court of a “Daubert” hearing in federal court, where attorneys for both sides argue for the admission of expert witness testimony ahead of trial.
Judge Grillo’s rulings could have an enormous impact on the underlying scientific arguments presented at the looming bellwether trial, so Thursday’s hearing (which will be streamed both live and on-demand by CVN) will be of significant interest to attorneys and stakeholders nationwide involved in the sprawling litigation.
Zantac, first developed by GlaxoSmithKline and known generically as ranitidine, spent four decades on the market as a popular over-the-counter antacid medication until testing in 2018 supposedly revealed high levels of a carcinogen known as Nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA. The FDA ordered ranitidine-containing products pulled from the market in 2020.
GSK and other drug manufacturers maintain the drug underwent appropriate safety and testing scrutiny during development, has successfully helped millions of patients who never developed cancer, and that plaintiffs who did cannot definitively link their illness to ranitidine.
CVN will present commercial-free, gavel-to-gavel video coverage of the full Sargon hearing, which will be available both live in real-time and on-demand after the hearing concludes.
The case is captioned In re: Ranitidine (Zantac) Product Cases,, case number JCCP5150, in Alameda County Superior Court.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com