Johnson & Johnson is pursuing a “plan of reorganization” aimed at resolving 99.75% of the 60,000-plus talcum powder lawsuits the company faces. While that $6.5 billion settlement plan would clear the company of ovarian cancer claims, there’s still talc-related mesothelioma lawsuits for J&J to reckon with.
And while the drugmaker recently said it has resolved 95% of the mesothelioma lawsuits, the ones that remain are problematic.
Case in point: On Monday, a Portland, Oregon, jury awarded $260 million to a 49-year-old woman who claimed that more than 30 years of use of Johnson’s Baby Powder caused her mesothelioma.
Kyung Lee, who is a mother of three from Beaverton, Oregon, was diagnosed with the uncurable cancer in August of 2023. The disease, which attacks the lining of the lungs, is caused by exposure to asbestos.
“For years, Kyung and her family used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder not having any idea it could lead to a life-ending illness,” Lee’s attorney Ben Adams of Dean Omar Branham Shirley, said in a release.
The jury’s award consisted of $200 million in punitive damages and $60 million in compensatory damages. J&J legal chief Erik Haas said in a statement that J&J plans to “immediately appeal” and is “confident that the verdict will be reversed, like the majority of aberrant adverse verdicts that have no basis in the law or science.”
J&J, which took the product off the market in the United States in 2020 and now sells a cornstarch-based version, has pointed to independent studies that show its talc does not contain asbestos or cause cancer.
During the trial, Lee’s attorneys claimed J&J kept the product on the market after finding that it did contain asbestos.
While the company has prevailed in a majority of talc cases, it has suffered some noteworthy losses, including a $2.1 billion decision in Missouri awarded to 22 women who claimed the baby powder caused their ovarian cancer.
J&J is hoping to reach a settlement with ovarian cancer claimants whose cases have been consolidated in New Jersey. If 75% of the plaintiffs sign on, the settlement will resolve all the claims.