Pfizer Inc. agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits accusing it of hiding the cancer risks related to its heartburn drug Zantac. The information was confirmed by Bloomberg, which spoke to sources familiar with the matter.
Despite knowing about the agreements, Bloomberg ignores their financial details:
The agreements cover cases in state courts across the US but don’t completely resolve the company’s exposure to Zantac claims, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the settlement publicly. Financial details of the settlements weren’t immediately available.
Likewise, Bloomberg explained that Pfizer Inc.'s decision is expected to provide reassurance to investors. He said the move coincided with Pfizer shares rising 1.5% to $28.19 in New York. In that sense, the company recalled that it has not sold the drug for at least 15 years and maintained that it will continue to seek resolutions to the lawsuits.
"Pfizer has explored and will continue to explore opportunistic settlements of certain cases if appropriate, and has settled certain cases. The company has not sold its Zantac product in more than 15 years and did so only for a limited period of time", Pfizer said in an emailed statement.
