2023-06-23 11:21:56
British pharmaceutical giant GSK said on Friday it had agreed to settle a US lawsuit over the possible cancer-causing drug Zantac, preventing the first case from reaching court next month.
The company said it had reached a confidentiality agreement with a California resident who says he developed bladder cancer as a result of taking Zantac.
The company indicated that its agreement to the settlement reflected its desire to avoid being distracted in a lengthy litigation process.
The company did not admit any responsibility and said it would defend itself vigorously in any further lawsuit related to Zantac.
The trial for that lawsuit was set to begin on July 24, marking the first test of the truth regarding Zantac’s association with cancer.
The company’s shares rose 5.3 percent by 0824 GMT, making it the strongest performer on London’s leading FTSE 100, and on its way to its best daily performance since December.
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There are a limited number of lawsuits related to the same matter in California, and regarding 78,000 in Delaware state court.
After its approval in 1983, Zantac, used to treat acidity and heartburn, became one of the first drugs to have annual sales exceeding one billion dollars.
Although the main production company “GSK” was the one that originally marketed the drug, it was sold by many other companies, including “Pfizer”, “Boehringer Ingelheim” and “Sanofi”, in addition to pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs following their ownership rights fall.
Fayez and Sanofi settled a similar lawsuit by the same plaintiff in California late last year.
And the fears of prolonged lawsuits and the compensation that may result from them caused the loss of $ 40 billion in the market value of the “GSK” and “Halion” companies, “Pfizer” and “Sanofi” in regarding one week.
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Friday’s settlement follows a setback for GSK in March, when a California judge rejected the company’s attempt to keep expert testimony regarding the drug’s cancer link out of trial.
But companies facing lawsuits for the same reason scored a major victory in December, when a federal judge dismissed all of the nearly 50,000 Zantac-related lawsuits in US federal courts following he judged that opinions provided by experts the plaintiffs had brought to connect Zantac cancer is not supported by scientific evidence.
And in 2019, companies and pharmacies stopped selling “Zantac” due to concerns that the main active ingredient in it, which is “ranitidine”, degrades over time to form a chemical component called “NDMA” or “dimethyl nitrosamine”, and this component is present at low levels in some Food and water, but research has concluded that large amounts of it may cause cancer.
In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration withdrew from the market all remaining “Zantac” drugs on the market, and all drugs produced using the same formulation, which caused many lawsuits to be filed, while the companies concerned repeatedly denied the possibility of “Zantac” causing cancer.
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