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STORY: GSK reached a settlement with a U.S. citizen on Friday (June 23) and avoided a lawsuit.

The California resident alleged the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.

That case was due to go on trial in July and would have been the first such lawsuit to do so.

The British pharma giant said the settlement showed the firm's aim to avoid protracted litigation.

GSK also said it would "continue to vigorously defend itself based on the facts and the science in all other Zantac cases."

Zantac was originally marketed by a forerunner to GSK.

It was later sold by other major pharma companies like Sanofi and Pfizer.

Those firms also face lawsuits, and all have denied Zantac causes cancer.

Zantac was first approved in 1983 and became one of the first drugs to break $1 billion in annual sales.

But some manufacturers and pharmacies stopped selling it in 2019.

That over concerns its active ingredient ranitidine degraded over time to form a chemical called NDMA.

It is found in low levels in food and water, but research has shown it can cause cancer in large amounts.

U.S. regulators withdrew all remaining brands of Zantac and its generic versions from the market three years ago.