NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Experiments with Zantac for heartburn suggest it is unlikely to cause carcinogens inside the stomach, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday.
The director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in the Department, Gantt Woodcock, said the levels of contamination detected in ranitidine, the active substance in Zantac, and the likelihood of cancer-causing NDMA are similar to those you would expect when eating common foods such as grilled and smoked meats. ».
The administration also added that its tests to simulate what happens in the stomach and small intestine indicate that it does not cause the formation of carcinogens.
She said she still planned to test ranitidine on humans to see if it was causing NDMA.
The drug, produced by France's Sanofi, has been withdrawn on suspicion of grain contamination with NDMA before being absorbed into the stomach.