Pfizer (PFE.N) will pay up to $250 million to settle more than 10,000 U.S. lawsuits over cancer risks associated with its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac. The settlement, aimed at reducing Pfizer’s potential liability, was disclosed in a court filing in Delaware last week and involves payments between $200 million and $250 million, according to sources briefed on the deal.
First approved in 1983, Zantac became the world’s best-selling medicine by 1988 and was one of the first drugs to exceed $1 billion in annual sales. However, in 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested the removal of Zantac and its generics from the market after finding the cancer-causing substance NDMA in samples of the drug.