GSK shares rise after settlement of 80,000 Zantac lawsuits in US By Reuters

(Reuters) – GSK shares rose 6 percent on Thursday after the British drugmaker agreed to pay up to $2.2 billion to settle lawsuits in the United States that claimed its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac had caused cancer.

The deal, announced Wednesday, was well short of some analysts’ estimates, including JP Morgan’s projection of $3.5 billion. The settlement resolves 80,000 or 93% of the cases pending against the company in the US

Analysts at Jefferies said the settlement of the cases should remove “most of the excess Zantac in stock.”

GSK did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlements and said the settlements were in the company’s long-term best interests to avoid the risk of further litigation.

The company will also pay $70 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a Connecticut lab.