In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Litigation

Superior Court of Delaware·Decided April 14, 2026·No. N22C-09-101 ZAN·Published

Opinion

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE ) General Zantac Litigation In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Litigation ) ) C.A. No.: N22C-09-101 ZAN

Submitted: March 27, 2026 Decided: April 14, 2026

OPINION AND ORDER ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

GRANTED

John J. Snidow, Esquire, (argued) Keller Postman, Washington, D.C., pro hac vice Attorneys for Plaintiffs.

Raeann Warner, Esquire, Collins, Price, Warner Woloshin, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorney for Plaintiffs.

Bernard G. Conaway, Esquire, Conaway Legal, LLC, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorney for Plaintiffs.

Patrick C. Gallagher, Esquire, Jacobs and Crumplar, PA, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorney for Plaintiffs.

Joseph J. Rhoades, Esquire and Stephen T. Morrow, Esquire, Rhoades and Morrow, LLC, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Andrew T. Bayman, Esquire, (argued) King & Spaulding, Atlanta, GA., Attorney for Defendants.

Nancy Shane Rappaport, Esquire, DLA Piper US LLP, Wilmington, Delaware and Ilana H. Eisenstein, Esquire, DLA Piper US LLP, Philadelphia, PA, Attorney for Attorneys for Defendants Sanofi US Services Inc., Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, and Chattem, Inc. Joseph Naylor, Esquire, Swartz Campbell, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorneys for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corporation. Sean T. O’Kelly, Esquire and Gerard M. O’Rourke, Esquire, O’Kelly & O’Rourke, LLC, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorneys for Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC. Daniel J. Brown, Esquire, McCarter & English, Wilmington, Delaware, Attorneys for Pfizer, Inc. Colleen Shields, Esquire and Patrick M. Brannigan, Esquire, Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, LLC, Attorneys for GlaxoSmithKline, LLC. Jones, J.

2 On July 10, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a decision reversing

this Court’s May 31, 2024, decision which denied Defendants’ Daubert challenges

to Plaintiffs’ proposed general causation experts. 1 The Supreme Court ruled that the

trial court had “erred in adopting a standard that favored or presumed the

admissibility of expert testimony.”2 The Supreme Court also ruled that for a general

causation opinion to be admissible, “a general causation expert’s conclusion must

reliably bridge the gap by scientifically linking the disease-causing agent to the

product at issue.”3 In other words, “ultimately an expert offering an opinion

regarding general causation for a product must opine as to the product itself.” 4

Following the Supreme Court decision, Plaintiffs filed a motion asking the

Court to Modify Case Management Order Number 7 to allow Plaintiffs to

supplement their expert reports. Contemporaneously, Defendants moved for

summary judgment maintaining that the Supreme Court decision in this case

mandates that all of Plaintiffs’ claims must be dismissed. On December 1, 2025,

this Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion to supplement. In the December 1, 2025

decision, this Court asked the parties to provide supplemental briefing on which

Plaintiffs were bound by the Court’s December 1, 2025 opinion and to complete the

briefing on the Defendants’ Motion for summary judgment. Briefing has been

1 In re Zantac (Ranitidine) Litig., 342 A.3d 1131 (Del. 2025). 2 Id. at 1134. 3 Id. at 1153 (citing In re Asbestos Litig., 911 A.2d 1176, 1202 (Del. Super. Ct. 2006)). 4 Id. at 1154. 3 completed. This is Court’s decision on which Plaintiffs are bound by the December

1, 2025 decision and on Defendants’ motion for summary judgment.

I first turn to the question of which Plaintiffs are bound by the Court’s

December 1, 2025 decision.

Plaintiffs maintain that the Court’s decision applies only to the select few

Plaintiffs who were in the bellwether pool. Defendants maintain that the decision

applies to all Plaintiffs who had filed cases prior to the December 1, 2025 decision.

Resolution of the parties’ dispute must begin with analysis of the Court’s case

management orders entered in this case.

The parties negotiated and presented the Court various case management

orders. The parties agree that each of the CMOs were heavily negotiated before

being presented to the Court for consideration. 5 Eventually the Court entered a

number of case management orders including CMO 1, 2 and 7.

CMO 1 provides in its first paragraph that “this CMO will apply to all

personal injury and/or wrongful death cases alleging the use of prescription or over-

the-counter Zantac … currently pending in the Superior Court of the State of

Delaware, as well as any future cases that are filed in, transferred to or otherwise

pending in this Court.” 6 CMO 1 established a dual-track structure. The “General

Causation Track” was “designed to obtain a threshold ruling on the admissibility of

5 D.I. 534, at 4-6 (“Plaintiff’s Mot.to Mod.”); D.I. 615, at 2 (“Def. Supp. Brief”); D.I. 626, at 12 (“Plaintiff’s Reply”). 6 D.I. 38, at 1 (“CMO 1”). 4 expert evidence related to general causation application to all matters in the Zantac

Litigation.”7 The order also established a “Bellwether Track” that focused on

“identifying representative cases for bellwether discovery and trials.”8 The purpose

of this dual track allowed each side to pursue its own goal: “Defendants wanted to

conduct general-causation discovery because they ‘thought they could win on

Daubert’”9 and Plaintiffs “wanted a trial [date] as soon as possible as they felt

confident that they could win Daubert on general causation.”10 The order provided:

If Defendants’ Daubert motions relating to general causation are granted as to any Delaware Cancers, such that summary judgment is Granted as to all claims alleging those cancers, then plaintiffs in the Zantac Litigation alleging those cancers will not need to be severed from multi-plaintiff complaints. Those plaintiffs’ claims will be dismissed with prejudice, so that those plaintiffs may appeal the Court’s General Causation Ruling if desired.11

CMO 2 was entered on June 13, 2023. It provided that the parties “will be

bound by any general causation rulings issued by the Court.”12 CMO 7, which was

entered on August 9, 2024, noted that “[i]n CMO 2, the parties stipulated to be

‘bound by any general causation rulings issued by the Court’ and the Court entered

such stipulation on June 13, 2023.”13

7 Id. at 2. 8 Id. 9 Def. Supp. Brief, at 2-3 (quoting Plaintiff’s Mot. to Mod., at 5). 10 Id. at 3 (quoting Plaintiff’s Mot. to Mod., at 5). 11 CMO 1, at 18. 12 D.I. 115, at 2 (“CMO 2”). 13 D.I. 383, at 7, n. 4 (“CMO 7”). 5 Defendants contend that the CMO is clear and unambiguous and that the order

applies to all cases filed before December 1, 2025. Plaintiffs maintain that the order

is ambiguous in two ways. First, Plaintiffs argue that CMO 2 explicitly contemplates

specific causation experts being allowed to testify notwithstanding any ruling on the

admissibility of the general experts. In support of this position, Plaintiffs point to

language in CMO 2 which provides that even if the Court were to grant “Defendants’

Daubert motions relating to general causation as to any Delaware Cancers, the

parties may proffer additional experts on … specific causation issues.”14 Plaintiffs

assert that provision means that even if general causation experts were excluded with

respect to one or more Delaware cancers, entry of summary judgment against

Plaintiffs diagnosed with those cancers is not automatic. Plaintiffs read this

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