Overview
- A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Dec. 12 found Johnson & Johnson liable and returned a $40 million verdict to two California women with ovarian cancer.
- Jurors awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after concluding the company failed to warn about risks from talc products.
- Johnson & Johnson said it will immediately appeal and reiterated its position that cosmetic talc is asbestos-free, safe, and not causally linked to cancer.
- The ruling is among the first trials to proceed since a judge in April rejected J&J’s latest Chapter 11 settlement effort, with more than 67,000 talc-related claims still pending.
- J&J ended U.S. sales of talc-based baby powder in 2020 and discontinued talc globally in 2023, as recent state-court outcomes have varied, including a $966 million mesothelioma verdict in October.