LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Sanofi SASY.PA, GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L and Haleon HLN.L regained some ground on the stock market on Friday after falling on the previous two days, the three pharmaceutical companies having assured that the file of the lawsuits related to Zantac in the United States had not recorded any major developments.
Sanofi’s stock market value fell 11% in two days, GSK’s 15% and Haleon’s 12.6% as the market feared that upcoming lawsuits involving Zantac, a burn treatment stomach withdrawn from the market from 2019 after the appearance of a potential risk linked to a potentially carcinogenic impurity, does not lead to very costly compensation for the three groups.
More than 2,000 complaints involving Zantac have been filed in the United States according to analysts and the first trial is due to open at the end of the month.
In a press release https://www.sanofi.com/fr/media-room/communiques-de-presse/2022/2022-08-11-16-21-24-2497005
released on Thursday, Sanofi said the first trial in which it would be directly implicated was scheduled for February 2023.
Zantac, originally launched by GSK, has been marketed by several companies since its exclusive patent expired in the late 1990s, including Sanofi, Pfizer PFE.N and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Haleon, listed on the stock exchange since last month, combines consumer healthcare assets previously owned by GSK and Pfizer.
GSK, Sanofi, Pfizer and Haleon have lost a total of nearly 38 billion euros in market capitalization for a week despite the absence of any new concrete element in the file, Barclays analysts noted on Friday.
Those of JPMorgan believe for their part that if GSK is the most exposed to the Zantac file, the fall in the title is probably exaggerated.
Regarding Sanofi, they consider it possible that the group will not be held liable for any damage and that, otherwise, its financial exposure to the case would be lower than that of GSK. They conclude that the current price is “an interesting entry point on a horizon of one year or more”.
Sanofi shares gained 0.89% at 11:15 a.m. while in London, GSK took up 3.91% and Haleon 1.58%.
(Report Natalie Grover, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Kate Entringer)