The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday gave two doctors found guilty of misusing their licenses in the midst of the U.S. opioid epidemic to write thousands of prescriptions for addictive pain medications another chance to challenge their convictions. The justices ruled 9-0 in favor of Xiulu Ruan and Shakeel Kahn, who had argued in appealing their convictions that their trials were unfair because jurors were not required to consider whether the two physicians had "good faith" reasons to believe their numerous opioid prescriptions were medically valid. Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the court, said that once defendants produce evidence that they were authorized to dispense controlled substances like opioids, prosecutors must prove they knew they were acting in an unauthorized manner.
Brazil's real rose 0.4% after hovering at its lowest since February. Brazil's central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto said on Monday that much of the bank's work on interest rates was done and was now expected to slow down the inflationary process. Brazil's benchmark Selic rate was hiked by 50 basis points to 13.25% this month, and more were signaled.
As the first company to introduce a COVID-19 vaccine, pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) experienced enormous windfalls by delivering primary and booster shots on a global scale. Now, Pfizer is developing a vaccine for another infectious disease with a wide-open market. Pfizer will invest about $95 million in specialty vaccine maker Valneva, based in France.