The Real Winners

Not for the first time, GSK is mired in litigation

This week, GSK won a much-needed victory in a $640 million cancer lawsuit over the heartburn drug Zantac. However, thousands of lawsuits are still due to go to trial in the US. And there are thousands more to come.

Zantac became available in the 1980s before becoming an over-the-counter product. At one point, it was the world’s top-selling medicine, with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Its ownership has changed hands. Sanofi, Zantac’s current owner, has paid over $100 million to settle Zantac cancer lawsuits.

In 2019, GSK recalled Zantac stocks ‘due to possible contamination with an impurity NDMA, which has genotoxic and carcinogenic potential.’ Having already settled some cases before going to trial and facing over 70,000 field Zantac cases, GSK went on the offensive to dismiss claims the drug caused colorectal cancer.

Recent cohort evidence reports use was not associated with an increased risk of cancer but with a caveat that further research is needed on the long-term associati…