Ranitidine and the brand name drug, Zantac, have been on the market since the early 1980s when GlaxoSmithKline released it for the treatment of gastritis and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). If you have been paying attention to the news lately, concern is being raised over whether or not ranitidine has a role to play in causing pancreatic cancer.
Ranitidine is part of the class of drugs called H2 blockers or histamine type II blockers. These drugs block the secretion of stomach acid in an attempt to alleviate symptoms of burning from the acid either being overproduced or refluxing up into the esophagus where it's not supposed to be. Zantac is the best-selling drug of all time and has been around for over 25 years. How are we just now discovering problems with it?
The problem isn’t really with the drug itself but rather an impurity in the tablets from the manufacturing process. The impurity making all the trouble is N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), which has been found to be linked to cancer in humans.
