GSK agrees to settle about 80,000 Zantac lawsuits for up to $2.2 billion

GSK has agreed to pay up to $2.2 billion to settle most of the lawsuits pending in the US that claim a discontinued version of the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, the company said on Wednesday.

The settlement with ten plaintiffs’ law firms resolves about 80,000 cases, or 93 percent of the cases pending nationwide, the company said. He admitted no wrongdoing as part of the deal.

The litigation began after the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020 asked manufacturers to withdraw the drug Zantac from the market because of concerns that its active ingredient, ranitidine, could degrade into NDMA, a carcinogen, over time or when when exposed to heat.

First approved by US regulators in 1983, Zantac became the world’s best-selling drug in 1988 and one of the first to surpass $1 billion in annual sales.

A drug currently sold under the name Zantac uses a different active ingredient and does not contain ranitidine.

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