Bottles of Johnson's baby powder are displayed in a store in New York on Jan. 22, 2019.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Johnson & Johnson will pay more than US$100-million to settle over 1,000 lawsuits that allege the company’s Baby Powder caused cancer, Bloomberg news reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the pacts.
J&J faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors claiming its talc products caused cancer owing to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen. The company has maintained that its talc is safe.
The drug-maker declined to comment on the Bloomberg report, but reiterated that its talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.
“In certain circumstances, we do choose to settle lawsuits, which is done without an admission of liability and in no way changes our position regarding the safety of our products,” the company said in a statement.
In May, J&J said it would stop selling its talc in the United States and Canada after demand had fallen in the wake of what it called “misinformation” about the product’s safety amid a barrage of legal challenges.
J&J has faced scrutiny over the safety of its baby powder following an investigative report by Reuters in 2018 that found the company knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its talc.
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