Years after talks between drugmakers, distributors and five US states began surrounding the opioid crisis, the final terms of a $26 billion settlement holding the companies responsible for fueling the epidemic is expected to be announced this week, Bloomberg reports.

J&J, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen are expected to disclose the final terms of a multibillion dollar settlement for thousands of lawsuits surrounding the companies’ role in the opioid crisis.  Each state has the option to accept just J&J’s offer, or the combined distributors’ proposal, and the companies will pay bonuses for each local government that signs up, according to Bloomberg.

Everything began in 1668, in Darmstadt, Germany — so goes Merck KGaA’s description of its global headquarters. And the conglomerate has been clear that it’s not going anywhere else, unveiling plans in 2019 to lavish $1.18 billion on the site over the coming years.

Merck KGaA has just mapped out another substantial chunk of that investment package.

The next stage involves pouring $319 million into two new institutions: a translational science center for scientists in its healthcare business unit, as well as a new learning center to onboard new employees.

For the first time since March 2020, the FDA’s inspections of US-based biopharma sites have returned to normal, FDA acting commissioner Janet Woodcock said Monday at a small business regulatory event.

“I’m pleased to say that as of this month, we’ve begun transitioning back to standard operations for domestic inspections while continuing to prioritize mission-critical work for foreign inspections,” Woodcock said.

One of the first entrants in the PD-(L)1 market in China, British drugmaker AstraZeneca is now looking to cement its advantage there with another approval for checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi.

Imfinzi was approved by China’s NMPA as a combination with platinum-based chemotherapy for first-line use in “extensive-stage” small cell lung cancer, an advanced form of the disease associated with particularly poor outcomes for patients, the drugmaker said Monday.

Bristol Myers Squibb has worked overtime to hunt down an edge for its PD-(L)1 blocker Opdivo over rival Keytruda from Merck, including taking a bold combo strategy with CTLA4 inhibitor Yervoy. But in head and neck cancer, the combo keeps dropping duds.

Opdivo plus Yervoy failed to show clinical benefit in extending the lives of first-line patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, according to topline results from the Phase III CHECKMATE-651 study revealed Friday.

Pfizer has agreed to pay $345 million as part of a settlement related to a 5-year-old lawsuit over the company’s price hikes on the lifesaving EpiPen.

Plaintiffs across the country raised concerns over the price of the autoinjector 2-pack, which they said spiked from about $100 in 2007 to $608 in 2016 — an increase of over 600%.

“Were the price increases attributable to market conditions, increases in manufacturing costs, or shortages in the supply of epinephrine? Absolutely not. They were driven solely by unaccountable executives and companies who sought to profit off of human misery and fear,” the consolidated class action complaint from 2017 alleged.