“The company continues to believe these claims are misleading and lack scientific merit,” said J&J executive Eric Haas
TheJohnson & Johnson announced that he had agreed to pay $8.9 billion to settle the lawsuitsfollowing allegations that the company's baby powder and other talcum powder products are linked to cancer.
The world's largest personal care maker hopes to settle complaints about 60,000 plaintiffsand to fund a trust set up in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, New Jersey, to cover future claims, the company said Tuesday. J&J has already withdrawn its talcum-based baby powder and other products, including Shower to Shower.
J&J's LTL Management unit has filed a new Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition to provide the basis for the trust, which outlines terms to settle the decade-old litigation. An earlier filing, which did not include a settlement, was thrown out in January after the appeals court ruled that J&J was wrong to use bankruptcy to prevent a jury from hearing the lawsuits and deciding on damages. J&J seeks to move forward with an LTL reorganization plan that covers all liability for the talc.
“Resolving this matter through the proposed reorganization plan is both fairer and more efficient, allowing plaintiffs to be compensated in a timely manner,” Eric Haas, J&J's head of international litigation, said in a statement. . The settlement money will be paid over 25 years.
“The company continues to believe these claims are misleading and lack scientific merit,” Haas said
Shares of J&J rose as much as 3% in trading after US markets closed.
If enough victims agree to join the deal, J&J will be freed from the legal process of cancer claimslinked to baby powder and other asbestos products. Juries ruled against the company in nearly a dozen such lawsuits over the past few years — including one that was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court — before J&J was forced to pay $2.5 billion to a group of 20 women, the case of which went to trial in 2018.
Women and men denounced the baby powder,which has been on the market for 129 years for causing ovarian cancer and mesothelioma,a cancer specifically linked to asbestos exposure. The victims claim that internal J&J documents dating back to the early 1970s show employees warning their superiors about traces of asbestos found in the talcum powder included in the baby powder. The victims claim that J&J executives should have warned consumers about the health risks of the powders.
“This is the largest product liability settlement ever has ever taken place after a bankruptcy filing,” said Michal Watts, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys who negotiated the settlement with J&J. “Our job is to get our clients compensation, and this settlement is the culmination of more than a decade of fighting for justice.”
J&J argues that the cases in question pose a financial threat to the company, despite its market capitalization exceeding $478 billion. That's because juries could repeatedly hit J&J with multibillion-dollar verdicts that threaten its finances, its lawyers argue. The company has also taken a heavy hit to its reputation due to the talc findings.
Under the terms of the settlement, J&J agreed to pay $6.5 billion to settle current and future cases, provide $2 billion in current and future mesothelioma cases, and pay $400 million to states that have sued the company. J&J for failing to warn consumers about the health risks associated with its talcum powders or threaten to file a lawsuit, according to Bloomberg's unnamed sources.
It is recalled that in August, the American giant had announced that it would stop producing and selling one of its most popular products in talcum powder, worldwide, from 2023.
The announcement comes more than two years ago after stopping the sale of the product in the USA, against the background of the tens of thousands of lawsuits and complaints it has received. Specifically, the charges state that this particular product is linked to ovarian cancer.
source: newmoney.gr
