Te­va and Al­ler­gan have reached set­tle­ments with mul­ti­ple states over their in­volve­ment in the opi­oid cri­sis. Their lat­est is worth 9 fig­ures.

West Vir­ginia at­tor­ney gen­er­al Patrick Mor­risey an­nounced the newest set­tle­ment, worth $161.5 mil­lion, at a press con­fer­ence on Wednes­day. The deal would re­solve claims that the com­pa­nies helped fu­el the state’s opi­oid epi­dem­ic. If it goes through, it could be­come the largest state-ne­go­ti­at­ed set­tle­ment in West Vir­ginia’s his­to­ry, ac­cord­ing to Reuters.

The set­tle­ment would ef­fec­tive­ly end a tri­al that’s been go­ing on for the last two months in Kanawha Coun­ty Cir­cuit Court, as those two com­pa­nies were the last de­fen­dants re­main­ing. The com­pa­nies did not ad­mit any wrong­do­ing as part of the set­tle­ment.

“This set­tle­ment, along with oth­er set­tle­ments we will re­ceive from oth­er cas­es, will pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant help to those af­fect­ed the most by the opi­oid cri­sis in West Vir­ginia,” Mor­risey said in a state­ment.

Te­va and Al­ler­gan are fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of J&J and En­do, which set­tled with the state ear­li­er this year. West Vir­ginia had ac­cused the de­fen­dants of mis­rep­re­sent­ing the risk of opi­oids.

Most re­cent­ly, Te­va and Al­ler­gan signed a set­tle­ment with Flori­da along­side En­do and CVS. Te­va has al­so reached an agree­ment with Louisiana, Texas and Rhode Is­land over the past few months.

As for Te­va’s end of the deal, the com­pa­ny has agreed to pay West Vir­ginia $75 mil­lion over the next 15 years, along with $8 mil­lion in at­tor­neys’ fees and tri­al costs. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Te­va will pro­vide $27 mil­lion worth of Nar­can over the next 10 years.

While Te­va did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment, the com­pa­ny said in a state­ment that “to­day’s set­tle­ment with the state of West Vir­ginia is an­oth­er crit­i­cal step for­ward in get­ting life-sav­ing treat­ments to peo­ple suf­fer­ing from ad­dic­tion to opi­oids. This set­tle­ment agree­ment is not an ad­mis­sion of any li­a­bil­i­ty or wrong­do­ing, and the Com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to ac­tive­ly ne­go­ti­ate a na­tion­al set­tle­ment.”

Speak­ing of that com­mit­ment to pur­sue a na­tion­al set­tle­ment — one that was echoed by Te­va CEO Kåre Schultz ear­li­er this year and was thought to be with­in reach by Feb­ru­ary 2023 — Bloomberg re­port­ed just a few weeks ago that both Te­va and Al­ler­gan were open to set­tling more than 3,500 law­suits for over $5 bil­lion, but those com­pa­nies re­main tight-lipped as ne­go­ti­a­tions con­tin­ue.

As the House-passed bill to cap the monthly price of insulin at $35 nationwide makes its way for a Senate vote soon, Sanofi announced Wednesday morning that beginning next month it will cut the monthly price of its insulins for uninsured Americans to $35, down from $99 previously.

The announcement from Sanofi, which allows the uninsured to buy one or multiple Sanofi insulins (Lantus, Insulin Glargine U-100, Toujeo, Admelog, and Apidra) at $35 for a 30-day supply effective July 1, follows House passage (232-193) of the monthly cap in March, with just 12 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.

Indian-based generics manufacturer Aurobindo Pharma has been in the crosshairs of the FDA for several years now, but the company is also attracting attention from regulators within the subcontinent.

According to the Indian business news site Business Standard, a warning letter was sent to the company from the Securities Exchange Board of India, or SEBI.

The letter is related to disclosures made by the company on an ongoing FDA audit of the company’s Unit-1 API facility in Hyderabad, India as well as observations made by the US regulator between 2019 and 2022.

Following some backlash from the American College of Cardiology and patients, Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer lowered the price of their blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis, thus ensuring that CVS Caremark would cover the drug after 6 months of it being off the major PBM’s formulary.

“Because we secured lower net costs for patients from negotiations with the drug manufacturer, Eliquis will be added back to our template formularies for the commercial segment effective July 1, 2022, and patient choices will be expanded,” CVS Health said in an emailed statement. “Anti-coagulant therapies are among the non-specialty products where we are seeing the fastest cost increases from drug manufacturers and we will continue to push back on unwarranted price increases.”