A California jury awarded $40 million to two women on Friday, 12 December, who claimed they developed ovarian cancer after long-term use of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder.
Both California residents testified that they had used J&J's baby powder after bathing for about 40 years. They also stated that their ovarian cancer treatments required major surgeries and many rounds of chemotherapy.
The healthcare giant, meanwhile, plans to appeal the jury's decision on both the liability verdict and the compensatory damages, AP reported.
This court verdict is the latest development in a long legal battle. The claims allege that J&J's talc-based products, including Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder, may have caused ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer affecting the lungs and other organs.
How much will J&J pay each woman?
The jury in Los Angeles Superior Court ordered the company to pay $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson had known for years that its talc-based products were harmful and yet had failed to warn consumers, according to Reuters.
According to court records, Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, while Schultz was diagnosed in 2018.
Andy Birchfield, the women's attorney, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson had known as far back as the 1960s that its product could cause cancer, Reuters reported.
J&J fights the allegations
Allison Brown, Johnson & Johnson's attorney, argued that only the women's lawyers had claimed their cancers were caused by talc. She stated that the alleged link is not supported by any major US health authority and that no study has shown talc to travel from the skin to the reproductive organs.
“They don't have the evidence in this case, and they hope you don't mind,” Brown told the jury.
J&J is facing lawsuits from over 67,000 people who claim they developed cancer after using its baby powder and other talc products, according to court filings seen by Reuters.
However, the company has maintained that its products are safe and do not cause cancer. J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020, switching to a cornstarch-based formula, and ended sales worldwide in 2023.
