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Multibillion-dollar settlements in pharma are a rare occurrence, but things are changing rapidly. Only weeks ago, two drugmaker deals were floated that would rank among the biggest ever if they are eventually approved...The first—a whopping $23 billion deal from Teva to end thousands of state and local opioid lawsuits...The largest deal ever approved was Merck’s $4.85 billion agreement in 2007 to settle thousands of suits against its arthritis drug Vioxx...The second deal reportedly on the table—a $4 billion opioid offer from Johnson & Johnson—would rank as the second largest settlement ever reached. That’s not even mentioning the deal Purdue Pharma is reportedly working on for up to $12 billion to end its own opioid suits...READ MORE

1. Reckitt Benckiser—$1.4B
2. Johnson & Johnson, Bayer—$775M
3. Allergan—$750M
4. Actelion—$360M
5. Teva, Endo, Teikoku Seiyaku—$270M combined
6. Purdue—$270M
7. Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, others—$248M combined
8. Insys—$225M
9. Teva—$135M
10. Astellas, Amgen—$125M combined

After more than a year of controversy, the federal government filed a lawsuit accusing Gilead Sciences of infringing patents on a pair of HIV prevention pills and unfairly reaping hundreds of millions of dollars from research funded by taxpayers...The patents are held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped fund academic research into HIV prevention that later formed the basis for a pair of pills — Truvada and Descovy — that are sold by the drug maker. The Department of Health and Human Services contended that Gilead refused to reach a licensing agreement despite “multiple attempts” at reaching a deal. “Gilead’s conduct was malicious, wanton, deliberate, consciously wrongful, flagrant, and in bad faith,” the suit states...READ MORE

A landmark trial over the U.S. opioid epidemic is on track to begin on Monday after drug companies and local governments failed to agree on a settlement on Friday that had been expected to be valued at around $50 billion...Top executives of the largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd left a Cleveland courthouse on Friday and lawyers for states and thousands of local governments said there was no agreement...After nearly 11 hours of negotiations...it was “profoundly disappointing” that local governments would not go along with a settlement he valued at $48 billion, including $22 billion in cash and $26 billion in products and services...READ MORE

Endo International Plc, Johnson & Johnson and other drugmakers that face litigation over the opioid crisis are exploring a way to settle the cases by participating in Purdue Pharma LP’s bankruptcy...Five drugmakers battling the cases - Endo, J&J, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Allergan Plc and Mallinckrodt Plc - are looking to enact a global settlement of the litigation that would be implemented through Purdue’s Chapter 11 case...The mechanism, if successful, would allow the companies to contribute money into a trust set up through the bankruptcy in exchange for a complete release from liability...READ MORE

Senators from both parties are pushing for a vote on a bill that would require direct-to-consumer drug ads to include the treatment’s list price...The bill, introduced in May by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin and dubbed the Drug-price Transparency in Communications Act, would amend the Social Security Act to require that ads include “truthful and non-misleading pricing information.”...The bill would circumvent a similar Department of Health and Human Services rule that was finalized in May. That rule is tied up in courts after a judge overturned it, saying one day before it was to go into effect that HHS overstepped its authority. The department appealed the ruling...READ MORE

Three major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, are removing all 22-ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder from their stores, following the healthcare conglomerate’s recall last week of some bottles due to possible asbestos contamination...CVS Health Corp said...it would remove the bottles from its online store as well, out of caution and to prevent customer confusion. The pharmacy chain said all other sizes of the talc would remain on its shelves...READ MORE

Facing a raft of talcum powder lawsuits nationwide, Johnson & Johnson has already been on the wrong side of big penalties in New Jersey and California. Two weeks after losing a case in the latter, J&J can take solace in notching another defense win...A Torrance, California, jury returned a defense verdict to J&J...in a lawsuit alleging the drugmaker’s talc products caused 60-year-old schoolteacher Carolyn Weirick to develop mesothelioma. The verdict followed a five-week retrial after an original jury failed to reach a decision...Despite...setbacks, J&J has emerged mostly unscathed from the talc litigation with no negative verdicts surviving appeals so far...READ MORE

Johnson & Johnson was on the losing end of the nation’s first opioid trial...even though it's appealing, the company is already fighting to limit its future liability as politicians put on a squeeze for more payments down the line...After the August verdict against the company for $572 million, Gov. Kevin Stitt and two prominent Republican lawmakers filed a brief arguing that future costs beyond the first year shouldn’t go to taxpayers...J&J should pay billions in addition to the $572 million verdict over many years to fund crisis abatement...READ MORE

Just a day before a lawsuit by The Nevada Independent to obtain public records through the state’s drug transparency law was set for a hearing and both sides had filed briefs, District Court...has kicked the hearing date to November 19...the state effectively denied two records requests seeking copies of reports submitted to the state by drug companies and pharmaceutical middlemen under the state’s bipartisan insulin pricing transparency law...the state argued that a federal law, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, preempts the state law and makes that information confidential. Its position came in the face of stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, which pushed hard against the bill during the 2017 session and which has sued once already to keep the state from publishing key details...That suit was eventually dropped, but only after DHHS adopted internal policies allowing drug makers to mark those details as trade secrets. In ending legal action, industry lawyers — calling the bill “facially unconstitutional” — left the door open for another lawsuit...READ MORE

As Purdue restructures its business in hopes of signing a multibillion-dollar opioid settlement...Thousands of local and state plaintiffs are fighting Purdue’s attempt to halt litigation as it undergoes a court-supervised restructuring...As part of that deal...the Sacklers agreed to pay $3 billion of their own money while Purdue will reorganize as a public benefit trust...While the Sacklers’ rumored haul from Purdue and its bestselling opioid OxyContin over the years has varied...a restructuring consultant for Purdue, said the family transferred between $12 billion and $13 billion from the company...READ MORE