In a statement issued by the law firms of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, Fine, Kaplan and Black R.P.C., and Pomerantz Grossman Hufford Dahlstrom & Gross LLP, a settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit involving Toprol XL, a beta blocker used to treat angina, heart failure and high blood pressure, and its generic equivalent, metoprolol succinate. The lawsuit claims manufacturers violated antitrust and consumer protection laws by keeping lower cost generic versions of Toprol XL off the market. The defendants AstraZeneca AB, AstraZeneca LP, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP and Aktiebolaget Hassle, all subsidiaries of AstraZeneca plc, of London, will pay up to $11 million with approximately half of the settlement fund going to pay consumer claims and the other half to pay insurers and employee welfare benefit plans claims.

• Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., said their new drug application (NDA) for suvorexant, an investigational insomnia treatment, has been accepted for standard review by the FDA. The product will be evaluated by the agency's Controlled Substance Staff during the review. Suvorexant is designed to target and block orexins, chemical messengers that help keep people awake. If approved, suvorexant would be the first in a new class of medicines, called orexin receptor antagonists, for use in patients who have difficulty falling or staying asleep.

• Mylan Inc., of Pittsburgh, and Famy Care Ltd., of Mumbai, India, agreed to a settlement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., resolving patent litigation related to norgestimate/ethinyl estradiol tablets 0. 180 mg/0.025 mg, 0.215 mg/0.025 mg and 0.250 mg/0.025 mg, the generic version of Janssen's Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo tablets, indicated for the prevention of pregnancy. Mylan will be licensed to sell all doses of its generic compound on Dec. 31, 2015, or earlier under certain circumstances. Other terms were not disclosed.

• Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, said the FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee (EMDAC) voted unanimously in support of the use of Signifor (pasireotide) for the treatment of patients with Cushing's disease. The committee based their recommendation on clinical trials including a randomized Phase III study, which found that mean urinary-free cortisol (UFC), the key measure of biochemical control of the disease, was rapidly decreased and sustained in a majority of patients. The study also showed that, on average, as UFC levels were reduced, clinical manifestations of Cushing's disease improved. Pasireotide is a multireceptor targeting somatostatin analogue (SSA) that binds with high affinity to four of the five somatostatin receptor subtypes (sst 1, 2, 3 and 5). In April, the European Commission approved pasireotide under the brand name Signifor for the treatment of adult patients with Cushing's disease for whom surgery is not an option or for whom surgery has failed.