The defendant says she used the company’s talc products for feminine hygiene for decades and that’s how she got ovarian cancer.
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The world renowned chain was ordered to pay South Dakota woman Gloria Ristesund, 62, $50m in punitive damages and $5m in compensation after they were found guilty in court after a 3 week trial. The St Louis jury deliberated eight hours before ordering Johnson & Johnson to pay 55 million United States dollars to a South Dakota woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on years of talcum powder use.
Johnson & Johnson is facing about 1,200 lawsuits accusing it of ignoring studies that link its baby powder to ovarian cancer.
The prosecutor said the verdict followed a $72 million jury award from the same court in February to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer after years of using talc powder for feminine hygiene. A J&J spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in an e-mailed statement that the company will appeal to the verdict.
The 62-year-old was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 after using Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based feminine hygiene products for almost four decades.
In showing a strong link between talc use and ovarian cancer, a 33% higher risk overall, the Brigham group specifically faulted another large study published in 2014 that didn’t identify a risk.
The verdict was handed by a jury in St. Louis. Onder argued that the New-Jersey based J&J had knowledge of talcum powder dangers for more than 30 years.
Summary: For the second time this year, Johnson & Johnson is ordered to pay damages for causing ovarian cancer.
“If J&J believed it might cause cancer, then J&J had an absolute moral obligation to warn people”, Mr. Lanier said. Some researchers have said that links of talcum powder with ovarian cancer are unproven. The company now faces about 1,200 other lawsuits that accuse it of ignoring studies that link its Shower-to-Shower product and Johnson’s Baby Powder to ovarian cancer.
“There are both economic and reputational issues that may motivate them to start thinking about a global settlement of these cases”, he said in a Bloomberg report, recommending the company to consider mounting a settlement program to address the talc cases.
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For the company, the threats posed by the personal-injury lawsuits come as J&J is trying to move past government investigations into off-label prescription-drug marketing, liability litigation over faulty hip and knee parts, and recalls of consumer products including children’s Tylenol.
