Dow Chemical Co's agreement to pay $835 million to settle a price-fixing dispute provides evidence that Justice Antonin Scalia's death is a blow to businesses that have had success recently in challenging class action cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dow, in the process of merging with Dupont, settled the decade-long dispute rather than risk its fate being decided by a shorthanded, eight-justice court missing, in Scalia, a reliable vote in support of companies in class action cases.

The Dow dispute, in which it was accused of conspiring to artificially inflate polyurethane prices, had been on hold at the high court pending the outcome of another case.

Pfizer is forking over $784 million to settle claims that its Wyeth unit overcharged Medicaid for its heartburn med Protonix. The agreement marks one of the biggest settlements to date from drugmakers facing similar allegations.

The settlement "does not include an admission of liability" by Wyeth, and it is still subject to a final settlement agreement and court approval, the company said in a statement. But the agreement does mark the end of a long chapter for Pfizer, which inherited the case after buying Wyeth in 2009.

The DOJ claimed that between 2001 and 2006, the company did not give state Medicaid programs the same discounts for the drug that it did for nongovernment customers, running afoul of federal law.