The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)

A U.S. senator is pressing pharmaceutical giant Merck over its patenting and pricing practices for the blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, escalating congressional scrutiny of industry strategies that can delay lower-cost rivals from reaching the market. Sen.

A businessman accused of ordering the murder of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has gone on trial in the Maltese capital, Valletta. Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a property empire, was arrested in 2019 by Malta’s armed forces on a yacht in connection with the car-bomb murder. After years of delays due to legal challenges, he faces complicity and criminal association charges and is the last of seven men to face trial over the assassination that rocked the country.

Law enforcement associations, anti-corruption advocates and a major banking group are warning that a new bill aimed at regulating the United States’ cryptocurrency industry could leave big gaps in safeguards against dirty money in digital currencies that have already become a financial vehicle for organized crime. Known as the Clarity Act, the bill seeks to bring cryptocurrency under a single legal framework on the national level, ending years of the industry operating in gray areas.

Cyprus’ anti-corruption authority has found “potential acts of corruption” and “abuse of power” by former President Nicos Anastasiades during his 10 years in office, referring possible criminal charges to prosecutors for further scrutiny.

New studies presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference suggest that reducing the dosage of anti-cancer medicines — including Keytruda, the world’s bestselling drug — could drastically cut global health costs by billions of dollars a year and improve access for patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the initial dosage of Keytruda in 2014 based on a patient’s body weight, at 2 milligrams per kilogram.

Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a Trump administration adviser on intelligence issues who recently stepped down from two senior national security positions, previously helped her father secure at least $12 million from a Russian investment bank that cooperated with the Kremlin, leaked documents show. Kennedy, a former CIA officer, was involved in the deal in 2009 and 2010 as head of an offshore corporation owned by her father. She was employed as a spy during those years, according to media reporting.

The U.S. and its key intelligence partners say that China’s military intelligence services are using online job platforms and networking sites to lure foreigners who have access to sensitive information.

Federal authorities in Mexico seized vials labeled as Keytruda, the world’s best-selling drug, during an operation to dismantle a counterfeit ring in a suburb outside of the capital city, sources told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Friday. This is the second operation where vials of the cancer medication were found, seized and led to arrests.

Investment giant Fidelity opened a brokerage account for Jeffrey Epstein months before his 2019 arrest, according to a document reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The account took in millions of dollars as Epstein publicly faced intense renewed scrutiny, according to the record.

Drug patents are meant to help pharmaceutical companies recoup high development costs by preventing competitors from using the intellectual property for a defined period of time, typically 20 years in the U.S. But the global patent system — a patchwork of national laws loosely connected by international treaties — is vulnerable to manipulation.