Plaintiffs Reject newest J&J Talc Litigation Offer
Seeking to clear billions of dollars worth of litigation claiming that its iconic baby powder causes cancer, Johnson & Johnson has announced it is now prepared to offer a payout of $8.9 billion over 25 years to resolve all claims.
The US healthcare giant’s new proposal follows an appeals court’s rejection of plans announced earlier to roll 38,000 unresolved cases into a new special purpose subsidiary called LTL Management that would later declare bankruptcy.
The company’s latest settlement offer is worth more than four times the $2 billion it last month agreed to commit after losing a second appeals judgment. According to J&J, the value of the deal would rise to around $12 billion when all the payouts are made.
Despite its new offer, the New Jersey-based firm, the largest in the US focused on healthcare, said it believes the claims are “specious and lack scientific merit” while reiterating earlier statements that its powder does not cause cancer.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs contend that J&J’s offer is “woefully inadequate” and a “non-starter.” In a statement released this week, lawyers representing tens of thousands of ovarian cancer and mesothelioma patients who are seeking damages said none of the plans proposed thus far would adequately compensate the women for medical bills, pain and suffering and lost wages.
One of them remarked that J&J is “seeking an extremely deep discount on justice and is not really offering anything other than another bankruptcy and more delay tactics.”
In a filing at the end of 2022, J&J said it had paid out $7.4 billion in litigation expenses between 2020 and 2021, with the talc cases a principal driver.
In 2021, the company announced it would discontinue sales of the talc-based product worldwide by 2023, starting immediately in US and Canada, replacing it with a cornstarch-based version.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
