A bottle of Johnson & Johnson baby powder in Calif., on November 12, 2021. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson said it will pay $5.5 billion to resolve outstanding lawsuits alleging that its baby powder and other talc products caused ovarian cancer.
The company announced on July 27 that the proposed settlement aims to resolve roughly 76,000 existing claims, representing nearly all remaining talc-related lawsuits pending in state and federal courts.
Under the proposed resolution, Johnson & Johnson said it would make a first payment of $3 billion next year, with no additional payments due before 2028.
Plaintiffs’ law firms confirmed the deal on Monday, saying it was a good resolution after a decade-long court battle.
The settlement would require the participation of at least 95 percent of the remaining claimants before it can proceed, the company said.
Johnson & Johnson has faced thousands of lawsuits from consumers who alleged they developed cancer after using the company’s baby powder and other talc products. The company has denied the allegations, saying its talc products are safe and asbestos-free.
In 2020, the company announced that it was discontinuing sales of talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada, citing declining demand, and switched to cornstarch-based products.
Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement that although the claims “lack scientific merit,” the company is willing to settle to bring decades of litigation to a close.
“While we are confident the company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” he added.
Johnson & Johnson has prevailed in some lawsuits, including a case in Los Angeles, where a jury last month ruled that the company was not negligent in selling its talc-based products. The lawsuit was brought by the families of three women who alleged the women’s ovarian cancer was linked to the talc in the company’s product, as the talc was at risk of containing asbestos.
Last week, a federal judge in New Jersey cast doubt on individual plaintiffs’ ability to prove that talcum powder use specifically caused their ovarian cancer and ordered them to provide an explanation.
In another lawsuit last year, a jury in Los Angeles Superior Court awarded $40 million to two women who filed lawsuits alleging that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-based baby powder led to their ovarian cancer after decades of use. The jury ruled that the company failed to warn consumers about the known dangers of its talc-based products and ordered it to pay compensatory damages to each plaintiff.
Reuters contributed to this report.
