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Good morning from the newsroom of the Financial Times.

Today is Wednesday, August 28th. Good morning from the newsroom of the Financial Times.

Today is Wednesday, August 28th,

and this is your FT news briefing.

It's a second straight day of big opioid industry news as Purdue Pharma offers to settle thousands of lawsuits.

Meanwhile, Philip Morris and Altria talk about reunifying in a merger that would create the world's biggest tobacco group.

Plus, the FT's Robin Wigglesworth explains the origins of the term Japanification

and why the phenomenon could apply to the United States soon.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

Developments around the legal action seizing America's opioid industry continue, this time with Purdue Pharma.

Sources say that the maker of Oxy-Coten and members of the controlling Sackler family have offered to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company.

That could amount to a total of up to $12 billion.

Purdue is using the threat of its potential bankruptcy to convince plaintiffs to accept the offer.

The proposal includes up to $8 billion from Purdue.

Four billion of that would be in-kind payments of drugs including those trying to reverse opioid overdoses.

The Sacklers would contribute another $3 billion and the family would get the money by selling

Mundi Pharma, which focuses sales of painkillers and other medicines in Europe.

This comes just a day after an Oklahoma judge condemned Johnson and Johnson for being a quote-unquote public nuisance for its role in the state's

opioid crisis. The company was ordered to pay 572 million dollars by the court.

22 opioid makers, distributors, and pharmacies are being named in more than 2,000 cases due to go to trial in October.

...