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(Alliance News) - GSK PLC on Friday welcomed a legal ruling in Canada that threw out a proposed class action made on behalf of users of a heartburn drug.
The Brentford, England-based pharmaceutical company noted that the British Columbia Supreme Court said there was little evidence that ranitidine, or zantac, leads to an increased risk of developing any type of cancer.
"Given the uncontroverted evidence that neither ranitidine nor NDMA are reliably associated with increased cancer risk, and the absence of evidence that ranitidine or NDMA cause cancer in humans, the plaintiff has failed to raise a bona fide triable issue regarding injury due to the ingestion and/or purchase of ranitidine," the court said.
N-Nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMAs, are a type of chemical compound.
"GSK will continue to vigorously defend proposed class actions by ranitidine users that have been filed in Ontario and Quebec as well as individual actions filed by ranitidine users in Canada," the company said.
The case was brought against Sandoz Canada, part of Sandoz International GmbH, which is itself a unit of Novartis AG.
Meanwhile, GSK also said it successfully sold part of its stake in consumer healthcare business Haleon PLC, which it demerged as a separate London listing last year. It now holds just over a 10% stake in Haleon, trimmed from 13%. Haleon sells Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol and Advil painkillers and Centrum vitamins.
GSK sold 240 million shares in Haleon at 335 pence each, netting GBP804 million in total. GSK said it and New York-based pharmaceutical maker Pfizer Inc, which owns 32% of Haleon, will not sell any more shares in the consumer healthcare firm for another 60 days.
GSK shares were 1.2% higher at 1,462.20 pence each in London on Friday morning, while Haleon shares were up 1.4% to 347.50 pence each.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter
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