Senate health committee chair Bernie Sanders has taken a step toward subpoenaing the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck related to an investigation into high drug prices in the United States, he announced Thursday.

The step is highly unusual, as the health committee hasn’t issued a subpoena in more than 40 years.

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it's offering up to $8.9 billion to resolve lawsuits accusing the company of selling baby powder that caused cancer — an allegation that J&J has repeatedly denied.

Why it matters: J&J faces tens of thousands of lawsuits from people and their survivors related to the company's talc-based powder.

Driving the news: J&J disclosed the offer Tuesday in connection with its decision to re-file its subsidiary LTL Management in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $40.5 million to settle New Hampshire's claims over the company's role in the U.S. opioid epidemic, averting a trial that had been scheduled to begin next week.

Thursday's settlement resolves a lawsuit brought in 2018 against Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) will stop selling talc-based baby powder globally in 2023, the drugmaker said on Thursday, more than two years after it ended U.S. sales of a product that drew thousands of consumer safety lawsuits.

"As part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, we have made the commercial decision to transition to an all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio," it said, adding that cornstarch-based baby powder is already sold in countries around the world.

Two doses of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine provided up to 85 percent protection against hospitalization from the Omicron variant, researchers in South Africa reported on Thursday.

The study from the South African Medical Research Council evaluated a second booster shot in 69,092 health care workers from November 15 to December 20. Researchers observed that effectiveness preventing hospitalization rose from 63 percent to 84 percent within 14 days and then 85 percent one to two months post-boost.

Two new studies of a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine booster showed promise against the omicron variant at a time when public health officials are urgently recommending booster shots against the fast-spreading variant.

One study was conducted in some 69,000 health care workers in South Africa. Results showed the vaccine reduced hospitalizations by 85% when comparing people who got two doses of the J&J vaccine to people who had a single dose.

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 15-0 Thursday to change recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines to make clear that shots made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are preferred over Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

The new recommendation: "mRNA vaccines are preferred over the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine for the prevention of Covid-19 for those 18 years of age and over."

Apanel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave a rare preferential recommendation to the Covid vaccines based on messenger RNA technology on Thursday — a decision aimed at steering people away from the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine because of concerns about a rare but serious side effect.

The recommendation passed by a unanimous vote, with all 15 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices supporting it.

U.S. drug regulators this week formally strengthened a warning to Americans regarding a severe condition linked to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Blood clots and low blood platelet levels, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), are now listed as a contraindication, or a medical reason for somebody not to get the shot.

Three giant conglomerates announced their breakups in the past week. All of them are seeking to put their recent past behind them.

Why it matters: GE, Johnson & Johnson, and Toshiba weren't the last of the conglomerates. Giants both old and new remain. (Think 3M, or Softbank.) In today's financially-optimized stock market, however, the arguments for internal diversification have mostly lost the day.