GlaxoSmithKline suffered a blow after a US judge ruled against it in a lawsuit relating to its heartburn drug Zantac.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals group and several rivals, including Pfizer and Sanofi, have been at the centre of a legal storm concerning the medicine, which was pulled from shelves in 2019 amid concerns that one of its ingredients, ranitidine, caused cancer.
The legal wrangle has weighed on GSK’s share price amid fears it could be forced to pay out billions in compensation.
Blow: The legal wrangle has weighed on GSK’s share price amid fears it could be forced to pay out billions in compensation
Its stock sank another 2.6 per cent, or 36.6p, to 1401.2p yesterday after Evelio Grillo, a judge at California’s Superior Court, decided expert witnesses recruited by plaintiffs in a Zantac lawsuit would be allowed to testify.
GSK said it ‘respectfully disagrees’ with the ruling but noted it ‘does not mean that the court agrees with plaintiff’s experts’ scientific conclusions’.
A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline said: ‘The scientific consensus is that there is no consistent or reliable evidence that ranitidine increases the risk of any cancer. GSK will press additional defences and the plaintiff still needs to prove his case at trial.’
Grillo’s decision potentially puts the California court in conflict with US federal judge Robin Rosenberg, who ruled in December that around 2,500 Zantac lawsuits were based on flawed science and the only reliable testing of the drug showed no provable risk of cancer.
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