Consultant picture of a bottle of Johnson & Johnson child powder | Photograph courtesy of Reuters
A California jury on Friday (December 12, 2025) awarded $40 million to 2 ladies who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s child powder triggered their ovarian most cancers.
A Los Angeles Superior Courtroom jury discovered that Johnson & Johnson knew for years that its talc-based merchandise have been harmful however didn’t warn shoppers, and awarded Monica Kent $18 million and Deborah Schultz and her husband $22 million.
Eric Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s vice chairman of worldwide litigation, mentioned in a press release that the corporate plans to “instantly enchantment this determination and, as we sometimes do in unusually antagonistic rulings, count on to prevail.”
A spokesperson for the plaintiffs didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Used for 40 years
Kent was recognized with ovarian most cancers in 2014, in keeping with courtroom information. Schultz was recognized in 2018. The 2 ladies reside in California and have been utilizing J&J child powder after bathing for 40 years. Remedy for his or her ovarian most cancers included main surgical procedure and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy, they testified at trial.
Within the remaining argument, Reuters Watched on Courtroom View Community, the ladies’s legal professional, Andy Burchfield, advised the jury that Johnson & Johnson has recognized because the Nineteen Sixties that its merchandise may trigger most cancers.
“Little doubt they knew, they knew, and so they have been doing every thing they might to cover it and bury the reality concerning the hazard,” Burchfield mentioned.
Firm says there isn’t any proof
Alison Brown, a lawyer for Johnson & Johnson, mentioned solely the legal professionals advised Kent and Schultz that talc was the reason for their cancers. The alleged hyperlink has not been corroborated by main U.S. well being officers, and there aren’t any research exhibiting that talc can move from outdoors the physique to reproductive organs.
“They don’t have any proof on this case. I hope they do not care,” Brown advised the jury.
J&J faces lawsuits from greater than 67,000 plaintiffs who say they have been recognized with most cancers after utilizing the corporate’s child powder and different talc merchandise, in keeping with courtroom filings.
The corporate says its merchandise are secure, asbestos-free and non-carcinogenic. J&J stopped promoting talc-based child powder within the U.S. in 2020, switching to cornstarch merchandise.
J&J has sought to resolve the lawsuit via chapter, however the proposal has been rejected thrice by federal courts, most not too long ago in April. The chapter had put many of the lawsuits on maintain. Brown and Kent’s case would be the first to go to trial since their newest Chapter 11 try was rejected.
Previous to its chapter try, J&J had a blended report in talc courts, successful a hefty $4.69 billion judgment for a lady who claimed child powder triggered her ovarian most cancers. The corporate received some instances outright, and different judgments have been lowered on enchantment.
The vast majority of the litigation considerations ovarian most cancers claims. Lawsuits alleging that talc causes a uncommon and lethal most cancers known as mesothelioma make up a small portion of the lawsuits dealing with J&J. The corporate has settled a few of these claims, however no nationwide settlements have been reached, and plenty of mesothelioma lawsuits have been heard in state courts in current months.
Over the previous yr, J&J has been awarded a number of vital mesothelioma lawsuits, together with a greater than $900 million verdict in Los Angeles in October.
