Pfizer (PFE) - Maua le Lipoti a le Pfizer Inc shares slumped lower Thursday amid investor concern over potential litigation linked to the popular, but now-discontinued, heartburn treatment known as Zantac.
A Deutsche Bank note, published Thursday, suggested that companies which marketed Zantac could be liable for damages if pending cases conclude that it was sold to consumers despite its now-documented links to cancer.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration pulled Zantac from the shelves in 2020 following tests that indicated high levels of nitrosodimethylamine, or MDMA, a known carcinogen, citing the risk that ranitidine (its generic drug name) “when stored at higher than room temperatures … may result in consumer exposure to unacceptable levels of impurity.”