Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $260M In Latest Talc Trial

A jury has ruled that Johnson & Johnson JNJ must pay $260 million to an Oregon woman who claims to have developed mesothelioma from using the company’s talc powder.

What Happened: The jury’s decision, announced on Monday, includes $60 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The plaintiff, Kyung Lee, was diagnosed with mesothelioma at the age of 48, allegedly due to inhaling asbestos-tainted talc over a period of 30 years.

Despite the verdict, J&J plans to appeal, with Erik Haas, the company’s worldwide vice president of litigation, stating that the decision is inconsistent with decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming talc’s safety.

The ruling comes as J&J continues to pursue a proposed $6.48 billion settlement of most talc-related lawsuits through a prepackaged bankruptcy. The company is facing lawsuits from over 61,000 plaintiffs, the majority of which are women with ovarian cancer.

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Why It Matters: This verdict follows a series of legal battles for J&J. Earlier this year, the company reached a tentative settlement of $700 million with 42 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., regarding alleged misleading information about the safety of its talc products linked to cancer cases.

However, J&J’s bankruptcy tactics have been met with criticism, with a group of cancer victims accusing the company of committing fraud through its persistent efforts to use a shell company's bankruptcy to resolve numerous lawsuits. The plaintiffs argue that this strategy was designed to "hinder, delay, and defraud" them, effectively putting billions of dollars out of their reach and preventing them from having their day in court.

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Photo via Wikimedia Commons

This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari