GSK, one of Britain’s two big pharmaceutical companies, has reached an agreement to settle about 80,000 US state court cases against its old blockbuster drug Zantac for up to $2.2 billion.
In an announcement made after the stock market closed in London, GSK said it had agreed a resolution with ten firms together representing 93 per cent of the Zantac product liability cases against the FTSE 100 company.
GSK has been locked in protracted litigation in the US, its biggest market, over allegations that the heartburn drug caused cancer.
Concerns over potentially far larger liabilities had first unnerved investors in August 2022 and since created a large overhang on the company’s share price.
The settlements, under which GSK has not admitted any liability, triggered a