All ranitidine should be discarded, says US drug agency

The heartburn and stomach ulcer drug Zantac (ranitidine) and its generic equivalent should be removed from pharmacy shelves and should be discarded if found at home, the US Food and Drug Administration has said.

The agency cited new findings from its analysis of stockpiled ranitidine, which showed that levels of the probable carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) increased over time in the drug during storage.1

New FDA testing, the agency said, had “confirmed …