The settlement terms are confidential, but Pfizer “acknowledged the validity of Nutrition 21’s asserted patents” and the Centrum line “may continue to use chromium picolinate,” Nutrition 21 says. The firms agreed as attorneys prepared to begin questioning a pool of potential jurors for the trial.

The largest shareholder in major Japanese pharma firm Taisho, the founding Uehara family, intends to smooth the way to the restructuring and expansion of the business by acquiring and delisting all of its stock. The nearly $5bn size of the deal would makes it the biggest management buyout in Japanese corporate history.

Biden administration’s new framework will consider whether a product’s price is reasonable in deciding whether to exercise march-in rights. Numerous other factors could limit provision’s impact, but industry is concerned it will discourage firms from licensing government-funded inventions.