Will you be switching from Zantac due to recall?

[whitet]

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog...ed-what-you-need-to-know-and-do-2019092817911

I've been using Zantac as needed for many years, sometimes as often as 3 times a week. And then I can go for months without a problem. I have had heartburn and/or acid reflux symptoms since I was a teen, but have never been able to attribute it's onset to any specific root cause. When Zantac came along I was overjoyed to have found something that would, almost always, give me relief. I will use up what I have, and probably try switching back to Pepcid, which was less reliable for me.

 

[vince]

I've been using generic ranitidine for a few years now, it's a heck of a lot cheaper and works just as well (for me anyway). I used to take Prilosec OTC but my doctor told me to stop taking it because of the side effects.

 

[whitet]

I've been using generic ranitidine for a few years now, it's a heck of a lot cheaper and works just as well (for me anyway). I used to take Prilosec OTC but my doctor told me to stop taking it because of the side effects.

It seems the generics are also subject to the same NDMA impurities.

 

[lemming]

It seems to me that the contaminated product is as likely to be in the inert ingredients then in something only found in the antacid. There was a recall of another drug last year with same issue. No one seems to be able to follow it back to the manufacturer which makes me think they are using many sources without a lot of supervision, just chas ing the lowest supplier.
I am still upset about the dog treat poisoning.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

A report on CBS tonight suggested it might not be impurities in the drug but the way ranitidine reacts in the human body that produces NDMA.

 

[explanade]

The linked story says some pharmacy found NDMA in their ranitidine supplies so it's not something just created in the body.

 

[coveredbridge]

I don't want to switch but I may not have a choice. It seems more retailers are pulling it from the shelves every day.

 

[audreyh1]

This just makes me think of all the problems with sourcing drugs these days. All these drug companies warned about buying cheaper overseas drugs years ago, yet they turned around and sourced their drugs from the same countries with little vetting or verification of product. What a mess. Makes me mad.

 

[explanade]

FDA isn't equipped to check on every shady lab in China and India, which are falsifying records.

They need to ban drugs from those countries.

 

[Telly]

Here is a link to the CBS Evening News story that GalaxyBoy was referring to, I saw it on TV also:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zantac...zantac-ranitidine-heartburn-pills-2019-10-08/

some snips:

New York — The nation's three largest pharmacy chains — Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS — have stopped selling Zantac and its generic alternative. The heartburn drug, used by millions, was pulled after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned this month it may contain a potentially dangerous impurity. But a CBS News investigation reveals that it might not be just an "impurity" — but something much more serious.

At a Connecticut lab, called Valisure, researchers test drugs from its own online pharmacy to check for purity and quality.
Last spring, they decided to analyze a few heartburn drugs to see if they contained a chemical called NDMA, a probable carcinogen. That same chemical had led to recalls of some blood pressure pills in 2018.
One medication stood out: Zantac and its generic version, Ranitidine. It had high levels of NDMA.
"Ranitidine, the active ingredient in Zantac, appears to us to be a fundamentally unstable molecule," Valisure CEO David Light told CBS News.
Light told the FDA and suspects that the problem is not just an impurity but what happens to the pill inside the body.
"In a variety of conditions — conditions of the lab, conditions of the human body — it can break down and then form the carcinogen, NDMA," Light said.

The possibility that Ranitidine could be converted into NDMA inside the body was suggested three years ago in research published by Stanford University professor William Mitch and his colleague, Teng Zeng of Syracuse University.
In a small study, 10 volunteers were given a tablet of Zantac. Urine testing found NDMA levels more than 400 times greater than what the FDA considers acceptable — even after adjusting for a new FDA protocol for measuring NDMA, Mitch got similar results.
"What we were hoping was that someone else would eventually pick up the results who's in the pharmaceutical field," Mitch explained.

 

[6miths]

What is the absolute risk involved? What evidence is there that alternatives are safer? What are the chances that this is another effort by big pharma to sweep away a long used drug that no longer has patent protection in order to sell more profitable drugs?

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Here is a link to the CBS Evening News story that GalaxyBoy was referring to, I saw it on TV also:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zantac...zantac-ranitidine-heartburn-pills-2019-10-08/

some snips:

Thanks. At the time I wrote that message CBS didn’t yet have that story on their web page.

 

[Sojourner]

I've always found famotidine (Pepcid AC) to be much more effective than any other H2 blocker, and the standard dose is much smaller at only 20mg. The generic version is also very inexpensive. It's great for preventing heartburn after the occasional bout of late-night eating or drinking. Definitely worth considering as an alternative to ranitidine.