OAN’s Avril Elfie
12:40 PM – Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Johnson & Johnson said it will pay $6.5 billion to resolve nearly all lawsuits in the United States that allege its talc-based products caused ovarian cancer.
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The company said Wednesday it plans to pay $6.5 billion over 25 years, pending approval from plaintiffs, to resolve nearly all of the thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. that allege its talc-based products cause ovarian cancer. It was announced that there is.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) stopped selling baby powder in the United States in 2020. Distribution worldwide will end in 2023. The company now sells a cornstarch-based formula instead.
In mines, talc is a naturally occurring mineral that may be found along with asbestos. Reuters And that new york times” The investigation revealed that J&J had been concerned for decades about asbestos contamination in its talc but had taken steps to hide that information from the public.
The agreement allows J&J to resolve the lawsuit by having its subsidiary file for bankruptcy a third time. Seventy-five percent of the plaintiffs who say they were harmed by J&J’s talcum products would need to approve a settlement. Voting will take place over three months.
If the agreement is reached, J&J will resolve approximately 99% of the talc-related lawsuits filed against the company. Multidistrict litigation is a term that refers to proceedings in New Jersey’s federal courts, where approximately 54,000 lawsuits are consolidated.
While the company praised the merits of the proposed plan, it argued that the lawsuit against it was a “meritless lawsuit.”
The court rejected two previous attempts by J&J to resolve the case by having LTL Management, a subsidiary formed to assume J&J’s talc liability, file for bankruptcy.
The company said the proposed settlement has the support of a majority of attorneys representing the plaintiffs who brought the cancer lawsuit.
J&J expressed confidence that the agreement would receive the 75% support needed to be approved as a bankruptcy settlement. This ends legal proceedings, bars future litigation, and prevents individuals from opting out of the contract and filing a lawsuit themselves.
The proposed agreement expands on previous settlements J&J has reached with U.S. states for failing to warn consumers about the risks associated with its talc products, and approximately 95% of those who sued the company He filed the lawsuit after developing mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to asbestos. exposure.
J&J said it booked $2.7 billion in increased claims in the first quarter of 2024, but did not disclose the amount of the mesothelioma settlement.
In its second bankruptcy filing, it proposed an $8.9 billion deal to cover ovarian cancer claims, as well as mesothelioma cancer lawsuits and state consumer protection lawsuits.
J&J has vowed to continue its legal defense while working to obtain approval for the settlement. The company says it has won 95% of the ovarian cases it has tried to date, including all cases tried in the past six years.
However, the legal battle resulted in important decisions for the plaintiffs, including a $2.12 billion award to 22 women who claimed that asbestos in J&J talc caused their ovarian cancer.
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