UK firm GSK to pay $2.2bn over Zantac cancer claims
UK pharmaceutical giant GSK has announced it will pay up to $2.2 billion (£1.68 billion) to settle thousands of lawsuits in US courts concerning claims that a discontinued version of its heartburn medication, Zantac, caused cancer.
The company revealed it had reached agreements with ten law firms representing approximately 80,000 claimants, with the settlements covering 93% of all cases.
Additionally, GSK will pay $70 million to settle a whistleblower complaint from a laboratory that accused the drugmaker of defrauding the US government by hiding Zantac’s cancer risks.
GSK did not admit to any wrongdoing in these cases.
In a statement to investors, the company indicated that the settlements “eliminate significant financial uncertainty, risk, and distraction associated with prolonged litigation.”
Zantac was initially approved for sale in the US in 1983.
Within five years it was the world’s best-selling drug, with annual sales topping $1bn.
In 2020, US regulators pulled Zantac off shelves due to fears that a key ingredient, ranitidine, could turn into a substance that may cause cancer when exposed to heat.
That move led to tens of thousands of lawsuits against the drug’s manufacturers.
The previous year, UK doctors were told to stop prescribing four types of Zantac as a “precautionary measure”.
It followed concerns in several countries that the products may contain the impurity.
As well as being sold by GSK, the drug has also been marketed by other major pharmaceutical firms Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Pfizer and Sanofi have both agreed to settle cases.
Boehringer Ingelheim is the exception. It has not announced any major settlements.
A drug under the name of Zantac 360, which contains no ranidine, is still being currently sold.
