A popular pharmaceutical brand is having to pay millions to a woman with cancer who used one of its products.
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A Minnesota jury ruled against Johnson & Johnson. They found the company’s talcum powder products contributed to the woman developing cancer. As a result, the pharmaceutical brand will have to cough up $65.5 million.
According to the Associated Press, the jury ruled against Johnson & Johnson on December 19. Anna Jean Houghton Carley claimed she used the pharmaceutical brand’s baby powder throughout her life. She later developed mesothelioma.
Pharmaceutical Brand Ordered To Pay Big
Her attorneys argued that the baby powder exposed her to asbestos. They argued the pharmaceutical brand was at fault and was aware of the issue. Meanwhile, Erik Haas, Johnson and Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, disagreed, claiming the product was safe.
“These lawsuits are predicated on ‘junk science,’ refuted by decades of studies that demonstrate Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer,” Haas told AP.
In 2020, the company removed the talcum powder product from shelves.
“This verdict does not make up for the pain and suffering that Anna, her husband Mike, and her children will go through all because of J&J’s desire for revenue and company profits,” Carley’s attorney Ben Braly, from the Dallas, Texas-based firm Dean Omar Branham Shirley, said in a press release.
“This case was not about compensation only. It was about truth and accountability,” Braly also added.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson also released a statement about the verdict as well. It said it will “continue to advocate for gold standard science in the U.S. judicial system.”
The company also wrote, “For far too long, American juries have been permitted to review junk science supporting plaintiff lawyers in search of jackpot verdicts, instead of science from scientific agencies authorized by Congress to evaluate such matters.”
The company has faced several litigation battles over allegations about asbestos in its products. In 2023, it stopped selling products made with talc. The company plans to appeal the verdict. So we will see what happenes in the follow up.