On January 8th, Bloomberg reported that insiders revealed that Johnson&Johnson (J&J) had initially agreed to pay approximately $700 million (approximately RMB 5 billion) to resolve an investigation into the company by more than 40 states in the United States, after being accused of not informing them of potential health risks associated with the sale of baby talcum powder.
The controversy over product carcinogenesis has been troubling Johnson&Johnson. The company issued a statement in August 2022 stating that it will stop selling baby talcum powder made from talcum powder globally in 2023. In April 2023, Johnson&Johnson announced once again that it plans to pay $8.9 billion in compensation over the next 25 years to resolve claims related to its baby powder and other talc containing products suspected of causing cancer. However, Johnson&Johnson has always denied the claim that the product is carcinogenic. On January 10th, a reporter from Nandouwan Finance Society called Johnson&Johnson (China) Co., Ltd., but the phone could not be reached.
The carcinogenic issue of Johnson&Johnson baby powder is still under investigation
The company faces over 50000 lawsuits
According to Bloomberg, Johnson&Johnson spokesperson Clare Boyle did not immediately respond to the matter. Florida has stated that a multi state investigation is underway and a settlement agreement has not yet been reached. The above-mentioned insiders stated that the settlement agreement will enable Johnson&Johnson to avoid potential litigation.
Bloomberg stated that the settlement agreement is one of Johnson&Johnson's strategies aimed at curbing an increasing number of lawsuits accusing it of concealing the health risks of baby powder. Previously, the company had attempted twice to use bankruptcy laws to force users to reach a settlement, but both attempts failed. Analysts say that decades long lawsuits, coupled with potential risks of future cancer lawsuits, have limited Johnson&Johnson's stock price.
Bloomberg reported that so far, only Mississippi and New Mexico have filed lawsuits against Johnson&Johnson. According to court documents, Mississippi hopes that Johnson&Johnson will be punished because the company has been selling over 6 million bottles of baby powder in the state for nearly 50 years since 1974, but has not provided any cancer risk warnings, which would result in Johnson&Johnson's direct losses of approximately $6 billion under local law.
At present, Johnson&Johnson is facing over 50000 lawsuits, all of which claim that in order to protect one of its most famous products, Johnson&Johnson concealed the presence of asbestos in its talc powder and the risk of cancer. The litigants are mostly women with ovarian cancer, but there are also some patients with mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure.
Johnson&Johnson firmly believes that talc powder products are safe
Discontinuing the sale of baby talcum powder containing talcum powder as a commercial decision
According to previous reports from Southern Metropolis, in August 2022, Johnson&Johnson issued a statement stating that it had replaced talcum powder with products based on corn starch, and stated that it would stop selling baby talcum powder containing talcum powder globally in 2023, but claimed that this was a commercial decision.
Johnson&Johnson stated in this statement that the company maintains its stance on the safety of cosmetic talc powder, stating that decades of scientific testing have proven that its talc powder is safe, free of asbestos, and not carcinogenic.
However, in August of that year, a Reuters report stated that a survey conducted by Reuters in 2018 found that Johnson&Johnson had known for decades that its talc powder products contained carcinogenic asbestos. Internal company records, trial testimonies, and other evidence indicate that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, Johnson&Johnson's raw talc powder and finished powder sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.
In April 2023, Johnson&Johnson issued another statement stating that it plans to pay $8.9 billion in compensation over the next 25 years to resolve claims related to its baby powder and other talcum containing products suspected of causing cancer. In the statement, Johnson&Johnson reiterated that this does not mean that the company acknowledges improper behavior, nor does it indicate that the company believes its talc powder products are unsafe. It also stated that the company has won the vast majority of jury trials related to cosmetic talc powder that have been filed so far, and reiterated that claims related to talc powder against the company are unfounded. "These claims are based on the premise that using talc powder in cosmetics can cause ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, which has been denied by independent experts, governments, and regulatory agencies for decades.".