Johnson & Johnson hit with $260 million verdict in latest talc case
5 June 2024 07:41
Another lawsuit has been filed against the corporation Johnson & Johnson. Among other things, the talc manufacturer will have to pay compensation to a 48-year-old woman and her husband. A court in the city of Portland, Oregon, decided this. J&J must also pay a fine in addition to the compensation.
Johnson & Johnson, an American pharmaceutical corporation, is accused of its baby powder being responsible for tens of thousands of cancer cases. The company has already paid billions of dollars in compensation as part of court settlements. Now, it has been fined additional millions of dollars in a new lawsuit, reports the German website tagesschau.de.
The company suffered another defeat in the latest court case concerning the alleged asbestos contamination of talc used in powder. The jury in Portland awarded the plaintiff and her husband $60 million in compensation and a financial penalty of $200 million. Johnson & Johnson announced that it would appeal the decision, writes tagesschau.de.
Another lawsuit against J&J
The plaintiff, Kyung Lee, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year at the age of 48, claimed that the cancer of the tissue around her heart was caused by exposure to asbestos from J&J's baby powder and deodorants for nearly 30 years.
In response to these allegations, J&J's lawyer argued during the trial that Lee's disease was probably caused by asbestos used in a factory near her home. He also claimed that the verdict "is irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming talc is safe, " which confirmed the baby powder did not contain asbestos or cause cancer.
Tens of thousands of lawsuits
The company has been dealing with lawsuits from over 61,000 plaintiffs in the USA related to the sale of talc. Most of them are women with ovarian cancer, with a small minority being patients with mesothelioma, writes tagesschau.de.
In the face of this wave of lawsuits, Johnson & Johnson has taken advantage of the specifics of Texas legislation and established a subsidiary, LTL, to handle the claims. LTL subsequently declared bankruptcy. In this way, Johnson & Johnson is trying to settle most talc claims with a single agreement and settlement for $6.48 billion, report the Germans.
