Drugmaker to settle nearly 80,000 Zantac lawsuits for up to $2.2 billion

( WJET/WFXP ) — UK-based pharmaceutical giant GSK, or GlaxoSmithKline, has announced that it has agreed to settle nearly 80,000 state-level Zantac cases. The lawsuits claimed that the now-discontinued version of the heartburn drug caused cancer, although GSK says that the settlements were agreed to without admission of liability.

GSK announced that it agreed to settle these suits for up to $2.2 billion, in a press release on Wednesday. GSK says that implementation is expected by early 2025. The company also settled a separate qui tam whistleblower complaint for $70 million. A qui tam complaint is a legal principle that allows whistleblowers to sue on behalf of the government, receiving all or part of the financial recovery obtained by the government. This settlement is an agreement in principle and still requires approval from the Department of Justice.

An independent Connecticut lab filed the qui tam whistleblower complaint, accusing GSK of defrauding the U.S. government and taxpayers by concealing cancer risks. The Connecticut lab was the first to flag the medications that contained carcinogens in 2019.

In 2022, a federal judge dismissed around 50,000 Zantac lawsuits after rejecting the plaintiffs’ scientific experts. Earlier this year, GSK won two defense verdicts in Illinois, but the company still faced around 75,000 cases in Delaware.

The lawsuits stemmed from an FDA investigation that began in 2019. In September 2019, the FDA announced that a small amount of cancer-causing chemicals, known as N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), were found in certain heartburn medications, such as Zantac. At that time, there was insufficient scientific evidence to issue a recall.

As the FDA’s investigation continued, they ultimately decided to issue an involuntary recall, pulling all prescription and over-the-counter heartburn drugs containing ranitidine from the market on April 1, 2020.

GSK continues to deny any liability in these cases saying “…The scientific consensus remains that there is no consistent or reliable evidence that ranitidine increases the risk of any cancer.”

GSK is not the only company that has settled Zantac cancer lawsuits. Pfizer and Sanofi both agreed to settle a combined 14,000 additional cases earlier this year.

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