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THE HEADLINES
A STORM IS A BREWIN’
Big news out of the land of mobile homes and broken dreams (Oklahoma) yesterday as a state judge ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay $572M in fines for its part in causing the opioid epidemic in the Sooner state.
The case was the first of its kind to go to trial and will have a huge impact on drug companies, retail pharmacies and drug distributors going forward as over 2k lawsuits have been brought by state and local municipalities.
J&J is appealing the initial ruling.
The charges initially brought against J&J, Purdue Pharma, and Teva Pharmaceutical claimed that the companies deceptively marketed and sold its drugs, creating a “public nuisance” (which seems like a really nice way to say “death vortex”). After a seven-week trial, Judge Thad Balkman agreed.
Initially, Attorney General Mike Hunter sought as much as $17B in damages. Apparently, markets thought the big pharma company got off easy, as the stock rallied following the news. OJ ain’t got sh*t on J&J.
Courtroom cowboys
But the company certainly didn’t make out as well as its co-conspirators …
So far, the cancer-causing baby-powder maker has been the only company willing to actually take on Johnny Law in the courts.
OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270M and Teva settled for $85M earlier this year with Oklahoma. Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, have indicated that the money will be used to fund a national opioid addiction center.
WILDCARD!
From awkward dinners to renewed trade talks, it’s been quite the G7 summit for Donny Politics and his world-leading peers in France. Things got weird at a dinner on Saturday night, when DJT repeatedly insisted that the G7 should let Russia start coming to its parties again… presumably, because Putin brings the best blow.
Russia’s invite has been “lost in the mail” since 2014 when it annexed Crimea and almost started a war with Ukraine … nbd, right?!
It certainly wasn’t helpful that soon-to-be-former Italian PM Guiseppe Conte was the only player on Trump’s side during the argument.
Double booked
On Monday, it would appear that Donny’s alarm clock didn’t go off, as he missed a meeting with the six other leaders to discuss the impact of climate change, including the ongoing wildfires in the Amazon Rainforest.
According to Donnie Deals, he had double booked meetings with India and Germany. The only trouble with that explanation is that both Germany’s Angela Merkel and India’s Narendra Modi were both in attendance, but he may have been meeting with some interns or other lowly officials.
For what it’s worth, the leaders that met did agree to pull together $20M to help the Amazon.
Working remotely
While he wasn’t at meetings on Monday, POTUS was putting in work elsewhere. During a joint presser with France’s Emmanuel Macron, DJT said he’d be willing to talk things over with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and also said that China was open to making a deal to reduce trade tensions between themselves and the US. The news sent both the Dow and S&P 500 rising 1%.
Host with the most
Next year, the G7 summit is planned for the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where exactly? Well if The Donald has his way, it will be at his Trump National Doral Resort in Miami. Touting its proximity to Miami International Airport and the quality of the villas the world leaders could stay in, Trump said the resort could “handle whatever happens.”
IN OTHER NEWS
iStockphoto
- Bristol-Myers and Celgene took another step toward closing their $74B deal dating back to January. Due to FTC concerns about competitiveness in the anti-inflammatory drug market, Celgene will sell its psoriasis medicine Otezla to Amgen for $13.4B in cash … pending the FTC’s approval. Once approved, the deal will put the merger back on track, which is expected to close by year-end. Just in time for cold, dry psoriasis, skin szn.
- Unless you forgot to pay your Spectrum bill and are over your data limit, you might have seen that the Popeyes chicken sandwich has created a bit of buzz lately. On the days that Popeyes released its chicken sandwich, August 20 and 21st, traffic to its restaurants increased 67.6% and 103.3%, respectively. According to TheTakeout and IBTimes, this resulted in roughly $23M in free advertising from the social media posts clogging up your timelines. And they’re open on Sundays to boot.
- Disney is pulling a Price is Right, undercutting Netflix for its monthly HD streaming service. Disney+, which will include HDR and 4k streams (… something ‘flix doesn’t offer as part of its basic package), will be available for $6.99 per month, $2 cheaper than Netflix’s basic package monthly rate. For the upper-middle class amongst us, or basically, anyone who has an additional $6 per month to flex, there will be a bundle that includes ESPN+ and Hulu, which is the same as Netflix’s HD plan. Good luck finding wholesome family content and grown men willingly mashing each other’s brains to a pulp on a weekly basis for our entertainment on Netflix.
- “Don’t call it a comeback.” – Paulo Basilio, probably. Paulo will be named as Kraft Heinz’s CFO starting on the first of the month, replacing David Knopf who apparently didn’t know his ass from his elbow when it came to accounting policies and standards. Knopf won’t find himself in the unemployment line, as the 31-year-old will return to 3G Capital. Basilio previously held the position of CFO back in 2013, but was moved to president of Kraft’s US commercial business in 2017 after Berkshire and 3G Capital bought the ketchup producer. Jumping between jobs like a true millennial CFO.
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