BBC – UK pharmaceutical giant GSK says it will pay as much as $2.2bn to settle thousands of cases in US courts over claims that a discontinued version of its heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.
The firm announced that it had reached agreements with 10 law firms who represent around 80,000 claimants.
GSK will also pay $70m to resolve a whistleblower complaint by a laboratory that alleged the drugmaker defrauded the US government by concealing Zantac’s cancer risks.
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.”
A drug under the name of Zantac 360, which contains no ranidine, is still being currently sold.
