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| DATE | 2020-05-19 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] now in other pharmacuetical news - the bizzarre..
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Listen to this bizzarre war...
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Johnson & Johnson to Stop Selling Talcum Baby Powder in U.S., Canada
Health-products giant to cease sales of product amid litigation over
alleged links to cancer among consumers who used it for years
Johnson &Johnson said it would continue to sell a cornstarch-based
version of its baby powder in the U.S. and Canada.
Photo: brendan mcdermid/Reuters
By
Updated May 19, 2020 6:56 pm ET
Johnson & Johnson, besieged by lawsuits, will stop selling baby powder
made with talc in the U.S. and Canada, citing a decline in customer
demand amid safety concerns about one of its most famous products.
The move comes as J&J faces thousands of lawsuits alleging the talc
powder has harmed women who had used it for years. Some of the lawsuits
have led to costly jury verdicts against the company.
J&J, which has been fighting the lawsuits and verdicts and says its
talc-containing powder is safe, will continue to sell a cornstarch-based
version of Johnson’s Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada. And the company
will continue to sell talc-containing and cornstarch baby powder outside
of those countries, where it says consumer demand is significantly higher.
“Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been
declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by
misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage
of litigation advertising,” J&J said Tuesday in a statement.
J&J has been facing lawsuits alleging its talcum powder was responsible
for cancer in some women who used it for feminine hygiene for years, and
in people who inhaled it.
As of March, about 19,400 plaintiffs had filed lawsuits against the
company over its talc-based powder in U.S. courts, alleging it caused
ovarian cancer and a rare cancer in tissue surrounding the lungs called
mesothelioma.
“I’m delighted to hear that they finally started taking steps to remove
talc-based baby powder from the market,” said Ted Meadows, an attorney
with the Beasley Allen law firm in Montgomery, Ala., who represents
plaintiffs in the talc litigation.
He said he hoped J&J would take steps to compensate thousands of women
he claims have been injured by the powder.
J&J didn’t give any indication that stopping sales would mean resolving
the litigation. The company said it would continue to defend the
product, its safety and what it called unfounded allegations against the
product and the company in court.
The company, in denying the allegations and fighting the lawsuits in
court, has won some cases in court but lost some costly verdicts, too.
In February, a New Jersey jury ordered J&J to pay $750 million in
punitive damages to four people who said their use of J&J’s talcum
powders caused mesothelioma; the judge reduced the amount to $186.5
million, and J&J is appealing the verdict.
Johnson’s Baby Powder represents about 0.5% of the company’s U.S.
consumer-health sales. The business reported nearly $1.5 billion in
sales last year, a fraction of J&J’s more than $82 billion in total
global sales for the year.
J&J relies more on prescription-drug and medical-device sales.
Yet Johnson’s is a popular brand familiar to generations of people.
Because the product contains the Johnson name, the negative publicity
about the safety concerns have dented the company’s reputation, surveys
have found. And J&J shares have suffered over concerns that its ultimate
liability will be hefty, even though some of its losses have been
reduced or reversed on appeal.
J&J also has faced an unusually large caseload of lawsuits over a range
of other products in recent years.
The baby-powder lawsuits have generally alleged that talc, a mineral
that is crushed to create Johnson’s Baby Powder, can cause inflammation
that leads to cancer.
Some of the lawsuits further allege that asbestos in the powder
contributed to cancer. Asbestos, a mineral once widely used in
construction, has been linked to increased risk for mesothelioma.
J&J, of New Brunswick, N.J., has repeatedly said its talcum powder
doesn’t contain asbestos. Last October, however, J&J recalled about
33,000 bottles of its baby powder after the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration said a laboratory test found a small amount of asbestos
in one bottle.
J&J said it issued the recall out of an abundance of caution, and said
subsequent testing of the same bottle and lot by different labs found no
asbestos.
J&J has tried to counter the allegations publicly by running newspaper
advertisements and creating a website, “factsabouttalc.com,” with
information about tests that the company says support the product’s safety.
J&J said Tuesday it would wind down commercialization of the talc-based
powder in the U.S. and Canada in the coming months, and that existing
inventory would be sold through retailers until it runs out.
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus-at-wsj.com
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