On June 17, 2024, the NAM filed an amicus brief asking the Delaware Supreme Court to review a problematic lower court decision admitting unreliable expert testimony in a mass tort action. In this case, plaintiffs have brought more than 70,000 lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies alleging that the heartburn and acid reflux drug ranitidine—widely sold under the name Zantac—caused them cancer. The Delaware Superior Court denied the defendants’ request to exclude the plaintiffs’ unreliable expert testimony from trial which, if granted, would have resulted in the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ case. The court’s ruling is contrary to a federal court’s ruling in the Zantac multidistrict litigation which dismissed all cases alleging similar cancer claims in 2022.
In our brief, we argue that the Delaware Superior Court improperly interpreted the Delaware rule governing the admission of expert testimony as more lenient than federal law and that Delaware Supreme Court review is required to stop the forum shopping that the court’s opinion will encourage.