Good morning! Jason Mast here, filling in for Ed on this fine Passover eve. Every time I sub in on this newsletter, I fear I will offend Ed and his readers’ fine-crafted coffee sensibilities with my plebeian choices. Today, we’re sipping a dark roast from a certain national chain that has decided to offer patrons unlimited coffee for, like, $11 a month. The brand will go unnamed for now, as journalism costs money and we here at STAT don’t just give away advertising for free. But if they — or any other coffee chain, we don’t discriminate — would like to reach a devoted audience of biopharma readers on the three or so days a year I guest-write this newsletter, well my email’s right at the bottom after the news. Which, speaking of …
Johnson & Johnson said it agreed to settle the claims from tens of thousands of people who say the company’s talcum powder products contributed to their or a family member’s cancers, the New York Times reports. The proposed $8.9 billion settlement could end a years-long legal battle that put J&J in national headlines, both because of the plaintiff’s claims and because of legal maneuvers that critics said were designed to minimize the company’s liability. Some lawyers for the plaintiffs greeted the settlement as a “significant victory,” while others opposed it. Investors, however, were happy, bidding up the company’s stock 3.5%.
J&J’s biotech division, Janssen, got a positive reception from some drug-pricing researchers Tuesday by striking a new deal with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, the one and only Ed Silverman dispatches. Cuban’s company will now sell Jansen’s diabetes drugs Invokana and Invokamet for a fraction of their list price. It’s a notable deal as Cuban’s drug-pricing efforts were previously limited to generic drugs. One expert cautioned, however, that, while this was a good step, “the number of people who will benefit here is not certain.”
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