As per the sources, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is planning a bankruptcy protection strategy to deal with the popular baby powder litigation as the number of claims against the company’s talc products is growing drastically.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs say they cannot stop the company from pursuing the bankruptcy plan but can legally tackle the issue. They even indicated that such a plan could cause a comparatively reduced amount of settlements for the cases in the Talcum MDL.
The spokesperson for J&J said that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. would continue to defend the safety of the products. The company is looking forward to considering Texas' “divisive merger" law that allows the company to split into two entities. The law will allow J&J to file for bankruptcy on behalf of the new entity.
It is not yet clear if the company will pursue the plan as the sources even determined that the plan might be abandoned. Currently, tens of thousands of plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against the company with similar allegations that the baby powder and talc products of J&J cause cancer due to the presence of asbestos. The plaintiffs even include women users of talc products who developed mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
J&J was aware of the presence of asbestos in its baby powder and other talc products, as per a study from 2018. In May 2020, the company stopped its sale of baby powder due to the growing allegations of the products causing severe harm to the users. The company still claims that its products are safe for use and have been passed several tests for being asbestos-free.
Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court of Missouri rejected J&J’s appeal in the litigation and rewarded $2 billion of damages to the plaintiff who alleged that she developed ovarian cancer because of using the company’s talc products. In June 2021, the company even agreed to pay $263 million to tackle the opioid claims of New York.
Johnson's Baby Powder, one of the most popular products containing talcum powder, is linked to increasing a woman's risk of ovarian cancer if she uses it regularly in the genital area. In a few cases, the cancer tissue was studied using an electron microscope and was found to have talc in it, which supported the claim that the cancer was caused by the body powder and increases the talc related cancer risk.
