Shares of GSK are seen rising 5% according to pre-market indications on Thursday after the British drugmaker agreed to pay up to $2.2 billion to settle lawsuits that claimed its discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.

US economic optimism last night helped the S&P 500 index to set its 44th record high this year, having improved by another 0.7%. Deutsche Bank said the benchmark’s 21.4% year-to-date advance means that this is its strongest performance at this point of the year since 1997.

GSK said it expects to take a charge of £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in its third-quarter results in relation to the settlements, which will be funded through "existing resources," and said there will be "no changes to GSK's growth agenda or investment plans for R&D as a result."