RE: game changer..11 Aug 2022 11:54
From Bloomberg -- Sanofi, Haleon and GSK extend Wednesday’s losses amid concern about the risk stemming from litigation over Zantac, a once-popular antacid that has drawn a flurry of US personal-injury lawsuits alleging it causes cancer. Analysts, however, say the selloff in Sanofi looks overdone and that Haleon’s involvement in the issue also seems limited.
The two-day rout has wiped out a combined $22 billion from the market capitalization of the three companies.
Deutsche Bank says the issue is likely to put pressure on near-term sentiment for Sanofi and GSK
Sanofi shares closed 8.2% lower on Wednesday, with Haleon falling 8.1% and GSK down 5.5%
GSK down 1.5% as of 08:42 am in London, a day after its worst one-day drop since October 2014
NOTE: GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Others See Zantac Cancer Claims Advance
SVB Leerink (outperform on Sanofi) says the risks facing Sanofi related to Zantac litigation look “overblown,” with its exposure to potential liability “relatively low”
The drop in Sanofi shares on Wednesday, amid fears around Zantac litigation, offers a buying opportunity, analyst David Risinger says
Credit Suisse (outperform on Haleon) says that Haleon’s involvement in the litigation also looks “limited”
Haleon does not own the rights to OTC Zantac in the US and is consequently not a defendant in any of the lawsuits, analyst Faham Baig says
Still, the UK-listed firm lost 6% on Thursday
Deutsche Bank says the Zantac issue is “not new” but appears to have “arrived in investor consciousness” in recent days, even though it has been “rumbling on in the background” for a few years
Don’t think the evidence suggests this will be an issue in the scale of glysophate, but it’s possible that it will result in liabilities in the billions of dollars
That, coupled with some negative headlines around the pending cases, is likely to be a short-term headwind for investor sentiment on GSK and Sanofi, analyst Emmanuel Papadakis says
Sanofi, GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer’s Zantac lawsuit risks could be “many billions of dollars, but we think settlement value could be around $5-$7 billion, with GSK bearing about 30% of the risk,”