Following a string of legal wins this year—plus one major setback in May—GSK has washed its hands of yet another lawsuit alleging the once-popular heartburn med Zantac can cause cancer.
GSK revealed in a statement Monday that it’s emerged victorious in Illinois state court after a jury determined that the company was not liable for a plaintiff’s colorectal cancer. The company says the win supports its position that “there is no reliable evidence” that Zantac increases the risk of cancer and pledged to “vigorously defend itself” against other claims.
The legal win comes shortly after GSK announced a settlement in a separate Zantac prostate cancer lawsuit that was pending in Illinois. Additionally, in the first Zantac personal injury case to go to trial, Chicago jurors in late May absolved GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim of fault on claims that the heartburn med caused plaintiff Angela Valadez’s colon cancer.
The Zantac saga revolves around the former main ingredient in the drug, ranitidine, which quality assurance lab Valisure first linked to the possible carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) back in 2019. Following Valisure’s safety flag, the FDA called for all versions of Zantac’s original formulation to be pulled from the U.S. market in April 2020.
Zantac first won approval in 1983 under custody of GSK, which turned the med into a blockbuster and the world’s bestselling drug by 1988. Following the loss of patent exclusivity in 1997, Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim and others began selling generic versions until the FDA’s 2020 crackdown.
Over the last year, GSK has been cleaning up Zantac claims at a steady clip.
In February, the British drugmaker settled two separate Zantac personal injury lawsuits in California. Plus, back in October, GSK said it had resolved four cases in the state, one of which had been set to go to trial in November.
Meanwhile, aside from the settlements and personal injury win GSK announced earlier this summer, the company also got off the hook in another injury lawsuit in June when plaintiff Eugenia Kasza, who alleged her use of Zantac caused her to develop breast cancer, voluntarily dismissed her case against the company.
At the time, GSK stressed that it did not settle Kasza’s claim or pay her anything for her voluntary dismissal.
Still, GSK isn’t out of the woods just yet.
In late May, GSK—alongside Pfizer, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim—was dealt a major blow in the ongoing litigation when a Delaware judge allowed more than 75,000 Zantac lawsuits to proceed to jury trials.
The ruling specifically affects state-level cases consolidated in Delaware and means juries will be able to hear expert analyses of the potential health risks caused by Zantac.
Earlier this year, analysts at ODDO BHF speculated that GSK could face potential exposure worth $2 billion if the company moves to settle the tens of thousands of claims it’s currently staring down.