A jury in Los Angeles delivered a $40 million judgment on Friday to two women who alleged that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder was the cause of their ovarian cancer.
Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to challenge the jury’s decision, which includes both liability and compensatory damages.
This verdict marks the latest chapter in an ongoing legal saga concerning accusations that the talc used in Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder is linked to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a type of cancer affecting the lungs and other organs. Notably, the company ceased the global sale of its talc-based powder in 2023.
Earlier, in October, another jury in California directed J&J to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who succumbed to mesothelioma. The family’s lawsuit contended that the woman’s cancer was caused by asbestos-contaminated baby powder.
In the recent ruling, the jury allocated $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband. Their attorney, Daniel Robinson of the Robinson Calcagnie firm in Newport Beach, California, remarked, “Their only mistake was remaining loyal customers of Johnson & Johnson for 50 years. Unfortunately, that loyalty was not reciprocated.”
Erik Haas, J&J’s global vice president of litigation, stated that the company had successfully defended “16 out of the 17 ovarian cancer cases it previously faced” and anticipated similar success upon appealing the latest verdict.
Haas called the jury’s findings “irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming that talc is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.”
Johnson & Johnson replaced the talc in its baby powder sold in most of North America with cornstarch in 2020 after sales declined.
In April, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied J&J’s plan to pay $9 billion to settle ovarian cancer and other gynecological cancer litiation claims based on talc-related products.
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