Zantac maker GSK agrees to pay $2.3 bn in US settlements

British pharmaceutical company GSK said Wednesday it has agreed to pay $2.3 billion in the United States to put an end to lawsuits alleging that its Zantac heartburn drug caused cancer.

"GSK today announced that it has reached agreements with 10 plaintiff firms who together represent 93 percent (approximately 80,000) of the Zantac state court product liability cases pending against GSK," the company said in a statement.

Under the agreement, whose terms are confidential, GSK will make an "aggregate payment of up to $2.2 billion" to resolve these cases, the statement added.

 A bottle of zantac heartburn drug is seen in this picture illustration. Reuters

The company also said on Wednesday that it had reached another agreement in principle to pay $70 million to settle a separate Zantac case with US laboratory Valisure -- which is still subject to final approval by the US Department of Justice.

Class action and personal injury lawsuits have been filed in US courts after the Food and Drug Administration warned in 2019 that some ranitidine drugs including Zantac contained low levels of an environmental contaminant considered a probable carcinogen.

However the pharmaceutical giant said it "has not admitted any liability" by settling the case as "the scientific consensus remains that there is no consistent or reliable evidence" that ranitidine is carcinogenic.

The over-the-counter treatment, known also by its non-commercial name ranitidine, was manufactured by several rivals including the French group Sanofi and US drugmaker Pfizer before it was withdrawn in 2019.

In recent years GSK has won several court cases on the issue in the United States, while signing several other settlements to avoid litigation.

Agence France-Presse