The company declared that settlements had been struck with ten legal firms on behalf of almost eighty thousand claimants. Ninety-three percent of cases are settled.
In addition, GSK has agreed to pay $70 million to settle a laboratory’s whistleblower lawsuit, which claimed the pharmaceutical company had deceived the US government by hiding Zantac’s carcinogenic dangers.
GSK refuted any misconduct in any of the instances.
Although there is “no consistent or reliable evidence” that the medicine increases the risk of cancer, the firm stated in an investor statement that the settlements “remove significant financial uncertainty.”
In the US, antac was originally authorized for sale in 1983.
It became the best-selling medication in the world in five years, with yearly sales exceeding $1 billion.
Because of concerns that one of the medication’s main ingredients, ranitidine, would transform into a chemical that could cause cancer when heated, US regulators removed Zantac from store shelves in 2020.
Tens of thousands of lawsuits against the drug’s producers resulted from such action.
Doctors in the UK were instructed to cease prescribing four different varieties of Zantac as a “precautionary measure” the year prior.
It happened in response to worries expressed in a number of nations that the products might be tainted.
In addition to GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim are other well-known pharmaceutical companies that have marketed the medication.