In a bid to settle thousands of lawsuits over its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has agreed to pay up to $250 million.
What Happened: The settlement, disclosed in a Delaware court filing last week, is intended to significantly reduce Pfizer’s potential liability, reported Financial Times, citing people familiar with the deal.
The New York-based pharmaceutical giant will pay plaintiffs between $200 million and $250 million to settle the cases.
More than 70,000 cases have been filed against various drugmakers in the Delaware state court, with smaller numbers in California, Illinois, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Pfizer, which sold Zantac between 1998 and 2006, stated that it continues to "vigorously defend against Zantac lawsuits, which we believe are not supported by reliable science". It added that it "has explored and will continue to explore opportunistic settlements of certain cases if appropriate, and ...