LONDON (Agefi-Dow Jones)–British pharmaceutical group GSK announced on Tuesday evening that the plaintiff’s lawyer in the first trial in the United States over the heartburn drug Zantac intended to withdraw his complaint.
“GSK is pleased with this outcome and believes that the withdrawal of Joseph Bayer’s complaint is the appropriate outcome. The absence of an increased risk of cancer from the use of ranitinide [le nom scientifique du Zantac, NDLR] is demonstrated by overwhelming scientific evidence,” the group said in a statement.
Around 3:00 p.m., GSK shares lost 1.6% to 14.03 pounds sterling on the London Stock Exchange.
The withdrawal of this complaint is perhaps not “as important as it seems at first glance” for the action of the pharmaceutical laboratory, believe analysts at RBC Capital Markets.
Last week, shares of GSK, its former consumer healthcare division Haleon and France’s Sanofi saw sharp swings caused by comments from analysts about their potential exposure to legal proceedings over Zantac in the United States and by the responses that these companies have given to these assessments.
On Wednesday afternoon, Haleon and Sanofi shares fell 4.5% and 3.6% respectively in London and Paris.
RBC analysts note that if the effect on the stock market of the withdrawal of the complaint seemed favorable at first, it is neutral for the parties concerned.
Reuters had reported on Tuesday that the plaintiff, Joseph Bayer, was unable to pursue the action initiated for “personal health reasons” and that he had voluntarily waived it. GSK, for its part, assured that it had not concluded any transaction with the complainant and had made no payment in return for the withdrawal of the complaint.
The trial was scheduled to open next Monday in Illinois.
This withdrawal “is positive at first sight and has in fact supported the action [mardi]when it became known that the plaintiff was withdrawing,” RBC Europe analysts James Edwardes Jones and Emma Letheren wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday.
“Nevertheless, this initial enthusiasm deserves to be tempered for the following reasons: the plaintiff withdrew for personal health reasons; the GSK press release merely states that the group did not itself enter into any transaction to end the lawsuits; no other parties involved in this action are mentioned, while a quick Google search shows that other parties have reached agreements”.
“We therefore believe that this announcement neither benefits nor disadvantages any of the parties involved. The next trial is scheduled for February 2023,” the analysts say.
-Anviksha Patel and Ian Walker, The Wall Street Journal
(French version Lydie Boucher, Emilie Palvadeau) ed: LBO
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August 17, 2022 09:18 ET (13:18 GMT)