UK pharmaceutical giant GSK has agreed to pay up to $2.2 billion (£1.68 billion) to settle thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. over allegations that a discontinued version of its heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.
The company reached agreements with 10 law firms representing approximately 80,000 claimants, accounting for 93% of all pending cases.
In addition to the settlements, GSK will pay $70 million to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a laboratory.
The lawsuit claimed that the drugmaker defrauded the U.S. government by concealing the cancer risks associated with Zantac. Despite the payments, GSK has not admitted any wrongdoing in any of the cases.
In a statement to investors, the company said the settlements would help eliminate “significant financial uncertainty, risk and distraction associated with protracted litigation.”
Zantac, first introduced in the U.S. in 1983, quickly became one of the world’s best-selling drugs, with annual sales exceeding $1 billion within five years.
However, in 2020, U.S. regulators removed Zantac from shelves after concerns emerged that its key ingredient, ranitidine, could potentially convert into a cancer-causing substance when exposed to heat.
This decision led to a surge in lawsuits from consumers claiming the drug caused cancer. In the UK, doctors were also advised in 2019 to stop prescribing certain versions of Zantac as a precautionary measure following similar concerns about the product’s safety.
Zantac was marketed not only by GSK but also by other pharmaceutical giants, including Pfizer, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Pfizer and Sanofi have also settled lawsuits related to Zantac, but Boehringer Ingelheim has not yet reached any major settlements.
A version of Zantac, called Zantac 360, which does not contain ranitidine, remains available on the market.
