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(Alliance News) - Pharmaceutical company GSK PLC on Friday said it disagrees with a California state court ruling on Zantac and its links with cancer.
GSK, among others, has come under pressure from accusations that heartburn treatment Zantac causes cancer. Its consumer healthcare spin-off Haleon PLC is implicated, as is French firm Sanofi SA and US firm Pfizer Inc.
While the Zantac worries are not new, they particularly grabbed investor attention over the summer. In its listing prospectus, Haleon mentioned Zantac litigation as a risk. It noted GSK and Pfizer, its former owners, were named as a defendant in roughly 2,150 US "personal injury lawsuits involving Zantac".
Brentford, England-based GSK on Friday said: "GSK respectfully disagrees with this ruling by the California state court."
It continued: "Following the 13 epidemiological studies conducted looking at human data regarding the use of ranitidine, the scientific consensus is that there is no consistent or reliable evidence that ranitidine increases the risk of any cancer."
The company noted that the litigation is still at an early stage and the decision only relates to the question of whether the plaintiff's experts can testify.
"It does not mean that the court agrees with plaintiff's experts' scientific conclusions or their litigation-driven science. GSK will press additional defences, and the plaintiff still needs to prove his case at trial," GSK explained.
GSK said that the ruling will not affect any other state cases or the December 2022 Daubert ruling made in the federal multi-district litigation.
In December, GSK welcomed a US verdict in a lawsuit that had claimed the Zantac heartburn drug caused cancer.
Shares in GSK were down 3.8% to 1,383.00 pence each in London on Friday
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter
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