British pharma giant GSK has agreed to settle another lawsuit in California alleging its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, in efforts to end costly litigation.
Reuters reports that the company, which has so far only settled cases in California, did not provide financial details of the settlement but said it was a “non-material” sum.
Analysts estimate GSK will settle all Zantac cases against it for a total of about $5bn in the first quarter of 2024, clearing what it called a “still relevant” overhang for its investment case and a distraction for management.
The upcoming trial, which was due to start on 13 November, will now be dismissed, GSK said, adding it had also settled three remaining breast cancer cases in California related to the same drug.
A further set of trials is scheduled to begin in Delaware courts in January, GSK said.
The company still faces about 79 000 cases related to Zantac in the US, with 73 000 of them in Delaware.
GSK did not admit any liability and said it would vigorously defend itself in any other Zantac cases.
First approved in 1983, Zantac became the world’s best selling medicine in 1988 and one of the first-ever drugs to top $1bn in annual sales.
Originally marketed by a forerunner of GSK, it was later sold successively to Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim and finally Sanofi. Those companies also face lawsuits over the drug.
In 2019, some manufacturers and pharmacies halted Zantac sales over concerns that its active ingredient, ranitidine, degraded over time to form a chemical called NDMA. While NDMA can be present in low levels in food and water, research has found it causes cancer in larger amounts.
In 2020, the US Food & Drug Administration pulled all brand name Zantac and generic versions of the drug off the market, triggering a wave of lawsuits.
Concerns about protracted legal wrangling and compensation wiped almost $40bn off the market value of GSK, Sanofi, Pfizer and GSK-spinoff Haleon over roughly a week in August last year.
In June, GSK had agreed to settle a similar lawsuit with California resident James Goetz.
California is generally seen as a more challenging legal environment for multinational companies as courts are known to be friendlier to plaintiffs. Pundits predict the company to settle another 15 cases in the state for “larger considerations”.
Earlier this month, rival drugmaker AstraZeneca agreed to pay $425m to settle about 11 000 lawsuits in the US that claimed its heartburn drugs Nexium and Prilosec caused chronic kidney disease.
Reuters article – GSK settles another California lawsuit on heartburn drug Zantac (Open access)
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