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.
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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.