No­vo Nordisk, one of the world’s top three man­u­fac­tur­ers of in­sulin, agreed to pay $100 mil­lion to set­tle a 2017 in­vestor suit that al­leged the com­pa­ny failed to dis­close that it was un­der the same pric­ing pres­sures as its com­peti­tors.

No­vo said in a state­ment on Fri­day the set­tle­ment was reached af­ter a vol­un­tary me­di­a­tion process and re­solves claims brought on by in­vestors for al­leged vi­o­la­tions of US se­cu­ri­ties laws. The com­pa­ny said the set­tle­ment con­tains no ad­mis­sion of li­a­bil­i­ty, wrong­do­ing or re­spon­si­bil­i­ty by any of the de­fen­dants.

But the set­tle­ment fur­ther ex­pos­es how the mid­dle­men, known as phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers, have al­tered the course of in­sulin pric­ing as prices have in­creased for di­a­bet­ics and man­u­fac­tur­ers’ prof­its have de­clined.

The in­vestors’ com­plaint al­leged that “No­vo Nordisk was able to raise the price of its in­sulin drugs 450% above the rate of in­fla­tion. From 2010-2015, the Com­pa­ny raised the price of its sig­na­ture di­a­betes drug (Lev­emir) by 169%. In 2014-2015 alone the Com­pa­ny in­creased Lev­emir’s price by 30%, and in­creased the price of its No­voLog prod­uct by near­ly 21%. As No­vo Nordisk re­cent­ly ad­mit­ted, these price in­creas­es were so sig­nif­i­cant that ‘many pa­tients sim­ply can’t af­ford the med­i­cine they need.'”

But those price in­creas­es were not enough, as the com­pa­ny in Oct. 2016 cut its long-term prof­it growth fore­casts by 50%, specif­i­cal­ly cit­ing in­creased pric­ing pres­sures on di­a­betes drugs.

One month lat­er, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and the late Rep. Eli­jah Cum­mings (D-MD) sent a let­ter to the De­part­ment of Jus­tice, call­ing on fed­er­al an­titrust reg­u­la­tors to probe il­le­gal col­lu­sion by No­vo Nordisk and the oth­er ma­jor in­sulin pro­duc­ers —Sanofi, Eli Lil­ly, and Mer­ck — to set the prices for in­sulin and oth­er di­a­betes drugs.

The in­vestors not­ed in their com­plaint that in 13 in­stances since 2009, the prices of No­vo’s Lev­emir and Sanofi’s Lan­tus have in­creased in tan­dem in the US.

No­vo Nordisk pledged on Nov. 30, 2016, to lim­it all fu­ture drug list price in­creas­es to sin­gle-dig­it per­cent­ages. But in the four years since then, law­mak­ers are still try­ing to find a way to nail the com­pa­nies on col­lu­sive price in­creas­es.

Six House De­moc­rats in March sent a let­ter to the FTC, call­ing for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the po­ten­tial col­lu­sion of in­sulin mar­ket lead­ers Eli Lil­ly, Sanofi and No­vo Nordisk.

Janet Woodcock may have one of the most historically long and drug-intense tenures in FDA history, but her new role is outside of all things pharma and the once-acting FDA commissioner isn’t looking back.

“No I really don’t look back,” Woodcock told Endpoints News via email on Monday morning. “Yes I will be transitioning. Longer discussion on infrastructure needed.”

Pfizer has agreed to pay $290,000 to settle allegations of questionable copay coupon practices in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Vermont from 2014 to 2018.

While the company has not admitted any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, Pfizer has agreed to issue restitution checks to about 5,000 consumers.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company has “enhanced its co-pay coupons to alleviate the concerns raised by states and agreed to a $30,000 payment to each.”

A judge in Delaware has ruled against Astellas Pharma and Gilead in a long-running patent case over Pfizer-onwed Hospira’s generic version of Lexiscan.

The case kicked off in 2018, after Hospira submitted an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for approval to market a generic version of Gilead’s Lexiscan. The drug is used in myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), a type of nuclear stress test.

The area of Ireland famous for Blarney Castle and its cliffsides along the Atlantic Ocean is seeing Merck KGaA expand its commitment there.

The German drug manufacturer is expanding its membrane and filtration manufacturing capabilities in Ireland. The company will invest approximately €440 million ($470 million) to increase membrane manufacturing capacity in Carrigtwohill, Ireland, and build a new manufacturing facility at Blarney Business Park, in County Cork, Ireland.

Twenty House Democrats, including Reps. Katie Porter of California and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, are calling on Senate leaders to move quickly with a reconciliation bill (meaning they only need a simple majority for passage) with prescription drug pricing reforms, and to include adding new authority for Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

They also called on the Senate to specifically follow suit with the House passage of a $35 per month insulin cap (as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s deadline for a vote on that provision has come and gone), and to cap Medicare Part D costs at $2,000 per year for seniors.

As the cases of monkeypox now sit at well over 100 worldwide and have spread to multiple continents, the orders for any type of vaccine against monkeypox are seeing nations and medical bodies looking to get their hands on anything and everything. And now SIGA Technologies seems to be getting in on the action.

According to Euronews, SIGA Technologies, a pharmaceutical company that is focused on providing medical countermeasures to biological and chemical attacks, is now in talks with several European authorities looking to stockpile its antiviral that can counter monkeypox. The drug known as tecovirimat or Tpoxx was approved by the FDA in 2018 as a vaccine for smallpox but was approved by the European Medicines Agency to also act against monkeypox, cowpox and complications from immunization with vaccinia.

Bristol Myers Squibb is bringing new life to a chemotherapy drug from the old Celgene pipeline as it touts another approval in a rare form of blood cancer affecting young children.

The FDA on Friday approved Vidaza (chemically known as azacitidine) for pediatric patients 1 month and older with newly diagnosed juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). The new indication marks the first approval for Vidaza in more than a decade, though it’s commonly used to treat acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).