Barclays upgrades Haleon to 'overweight'

Barclays upgraded Haleon on Wednesday to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ after a US Court threw out lawsuits alleging that GSK’s former heartburn drug, Zantac, had caused cancer.

"Zantac related MDL litigation in the US was summarily dismissed last night, meaning it will not proceed to trial (unless successfully appealed)," Barclays said.

"As such we regard Zantac as substantially derisked, leaving Haleon investible again for those without the appetite for pharma litigation risk."

The bank lifted its price target on the shares to 360p from 298p. Haleon was recently spun out from GSK as its consumer healthcare business.

At 1320 GMT, Haleon shares were up 3.4% at 305.20p.