In 2020, responding to tens of thousands of lawsuits, Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada. The Guardian reported the company was sued on the allegation that the talc-based baby powder caused cancer, but the company responded by saying that it was confident in the safety of its products.
But it wasn’t the first time Johnson & Johnson experienced product safety concerns. Now, the company has announced that it will stop selling talc-based baby powder worldwide by 2023 and replace it with their cornstarch based powder.
Why was Johnson & Johnson sued for its baby powder?
The company recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder in 2019 because traces of asbestos were detected. Amid the lawsuits that it was dealing with during that time, The Guardian said that the company knew about the contamination of its products.
These lawsuits have cost the company billions of dollars. According to Fierce Pharma, Johnson & Johnson has spent nearly $4.5 billion on resolving the more than 40,000 total lawsuits that the company has experienced. Shareholders had proposed in April to shut down the production of talc-based products, but their proposal failed.
The company has experienced lawsuits since 2014 and has now decided to switch over to cornstarch instead of talc in its baby powder by 2023 worldwide. The Washington Post wrote that Johnson & Johnson “remains ‘firmly behind’ the view that its talc-based goods are safe, do not cause cancer and do not contain asbestos.”
Has the company had to pay plaintiffs?
The company has had to pay billions of dollars to plaintiffs who argued that their cancer was linked to the talc-based powder. According to CNN, “Some scientific studies have shown that women have an increased risk of ovarian cancer with talc use in the genital area, but others do not.”
In 2018, a group of 22 women were awarded more than $4 billion for their claims that the talc-based powder contributed to their ovarian cancer.
The New York Times spoke with Leigh O’Dell, a lawyer of a current plaintiff against Johnson & Johnson, who said, “After decades of selling talc-based products the company knew could cause deadly cancers to unsuspecting women and men, J.&J. has finally done the right thing.”