Investors Flee Drug Giants as Zantac Cancer Trials Approach
- Sanofi, GSK, Haleon lost $40 billion of market value in days
- Recalled drug Zantac faces wave of product-liability suits
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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GSK Plc and Sanofi rose for the first time this week following a selloff triggered by investors waking up to the risk that US juries could hold the drug companies accountable for cancers allegedly caused by contaminants in a once-popular antacid.
Shares in Britain’s GSK gained as much as 5% on Friday while the French group Sanofi rose 3.2% after both pharmaceutical giants said they would vigorously defend any claims and disputed the idea that an ingredient in the drug Zantac caused cancer.