Bayer may have to ask shareholders for fresh capital to shore up its finances even after the debt-laden German drugmaker slashed dividends last week in its latest effort to get wiggle room, analysts said. But new CEO Bill Anderson may struggle to win over investors, who have seen the company's value sink by two thirds since its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto in 2018, which saddled it with costly litigation and debt. The debate over a possible share issue comes as Anderson, who was hired last June to revive the company's fortunes, prepares to deliver a strategic investor update in London on Tuesday.
In 2019, some manufacturers and pharmacies halted Zantac sales over concerns that its active ingredient, ranitidine, degraded over time to form a chemical called NDMA. While NDMA can be present in low levels in food and water, research has found it causes cancer in larger amounts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2020 pulled Zantac and its generic versions off the market, triggering a wave of lawsuits.
British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $425m (£352m) to settle US lawsuits that claimed two of its heartburn drugs caused kidney damage.