09 Jun Zantac remains dominant mass tort ad target
Since January, advertising soliciting claims alleging injury by the heartburn medication Zantac (ranitidine) claims far surpassed those of any other product. X Ante monitored and recorded over 45,000 television ads purchased at an estimated cost of over $7 million — more than twice as many ads as those related to the talcum powder litigation, the next most targeted product.
Top Ad Targets, Jan-Apr 2021
On average, about 376 Zantac litigation ads aired every day across the United States in the first quarter — the equivalent of an airing every 4 minutes.
The top Zantac ads this year aired thousands of times at an estimated cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Top Ads, Jan-Apr 2021
The most widely-aired television ad soliciting Zantac or any other mass tort litigation claim from January through April: 5,400 airings at an estimated cost of over $310,000.
TV advertisement soliciting a Zantac claim with the most spent to air it from January through April: over 3,200 ads airings at an estimated cost of over $850,000.
These ads aired nationally on broadcast and cable networks and locally in nearly every media market in the United States.
Local Zantac Litigation Ad Distribution, Q1 2021
Over 70 lawyers, law firms and other advertisers sponsored these ads in the first quarter. The lead generation companies Negligence Network Attorneys and the Guardian Legal Network each spent about $1 million on 6,000 Zantac litigation ads since January.
Since the FDA statement in September 2019 about the possible presence of the carcinogen NDMA in the pharmaceutical drug, over a quarter-of-a-million television ads have aired across the United States at an estimated cost of over $47 million. This was more than four times the amount spent on ads related to any other pharmaceutical litigation.
The amount spent on monthly advertising increased by $2.1 million in the month following the FDA’s later announcement of a recall of the drug in April 2020.
In addition to television advertising, X Ante analysis also captured Zantac litigation advertising online and on social media.
Sample Facebook & Google Ads, Q1 2021
This advertising onslaught spurred the filing of hundreds of lawsuits. Since the first case was filed in September 2019, about 600 cases have been filed against the manufacturers of Zantac — GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and others — in the multidistrict litigation court established for the Zantac claims in the Southern District of Florida. The MDL was established by the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation in February 2020. There could be hundreds or thousands of other cases that have not yet been filed.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers and other advertisers are trying to reach the estimated 15 million Americans who take ranitidine at prescription levels. As one of the best-selling drugs in pharmaceutical history and one of the first medications to top $1 billion in annual US sales, the number of Zantac lawsuits could increase significantly in the future.