Gov’t bans drugs containing carcinogenic ranitidine

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Thursday it has banned the manufacturing, sales and imports of 269 medications used to treat a range of digestive ailments that contain ranitidine.

Ranitidine has been found to release a possible carcinogen when it breaks down after ingestion.

The ministry examined 395 ranitidine containing medications from 11 manufacturers and found 269 produced more than the acceptable limit of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), a substance known to cause cancer, formed by the breakdown of ranitidine.

NDMA has been defined by the World Health Organization’s International Cancer Research Institute as a potentially carcinogenic substance. The ministry’s examination came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Sept. 13 that it had detected low levels of NDMA in the popular digestion medication Zantac.

Supplied by GlaxoSmithKline Korea, Zantac has been one of the most famous ranitidine containing drugs here as well. It is sold in 75 milligrams containers as an overthe-counter (OTC) drug, and 150 milligrams as a prescription medicine.

While concern is growing among patients who have used the medications, the ministry said the chances of people who took them for a short period of time getting cancer was very low.

“If the patients took the medication for a short period, they do not have to worry about any risk,” Kim Young-ok, director of the pharmaceutical safety bureau at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, said during a press briefing at the Government Complex Seoul.