J&J, Kenvue asked to pay $45 million to family of baby powder user

Jurors hearing the case in Chicago late Friday concluded that Kenview was 70% responsible for the death of Theresa Garcia, a mother of six and grandmother who died in 2020 after developing mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos. A type of cancer associated with it. Her family alleged that J&J and Kenview’s predecessor firm sold their talcum-based baby powder knowing it was contaminated with asbestos, according to court filings.

The panel found that J&J and one of its units were responsible for the remaining 30% of the verdict, one of the first victories for a talc plaintiff since a judge last year rejected a J&J unit’s bankruptcy filing that was intended to result in a settlement. Had to put pressure on. Talc matters. A Florida jury rejected similar claims against the company on Thursday.

J&J says its talc-based products do not cause cancer and that it has properly marketed its baby powder for more than a century.

Officials at Kenview, which no longer sells baby powder, confirmed earlier this month that it no longer makes or sells a talc-based version of the product. Before the spinoff, J&J said it would remove talc from the North American market by 2020 and worldwide by December 2023 and switch to a cornstarch replacement. It cited declining sales for the move.

Kenview spokeswoman Melissa Witt did not immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking comment on the decision. Eric Haas, head of J&J’s in-house litigation section, said the company will appeal the jury’s decision. “We expect to prevail as we typically do with unusual adverse verdicts that have no basis in law or science and are based on clearly erroneous decisions by the trial court,” Haas said in an emailed statement. ”

J&J is among a number of big drugmakers that have divested or plan to divest low-margin, yet reliably profitable, consumer units to focus on the higher-risk business of making new drugs. . J&J raised $13.2 billion in cash through the Kenview debt offering and the sale of its shares. Kenvue is now home to popular J&J products, such as its Tylenol pain reliever, Listerine mouthwash and a new cornstarch-based version of baby powder.

Read more: J&J to pay $75 million to settle $6 billion baby powder suit

As part of the spinoff, Kenview secured an indemnification agreement from J&J to cover any talc liabilities arising in North America, according to a securities filing. The filing shows Kenview will have to deal with the talk judgment arising from courts outside that region.

Garcia’s family was set to go to trial in 2021, when J&J’s LTL management unit filed its first Chapter 11 case to promote the settlement of all current and future talc cases, said Jessica Dean, the family’s attorney. did. It was only after that case — along with a second attempt to use bankruptcy courts to settle the talc litigation — that the family was able to get their case heard with a jury, Dean said.

“After years of delay due to Johnson & Johnson’s bad faith abuse of the bankruptcy system,” Dean said in a release, “the family is grateful that jurors found the ‘deception’ perpetrated by J&J and Kenview regarding “Looked at whether talc could cause cancer.” The defendants knew that talc contained asbestos impurities that was mined and put into baby powder bottles sold by J&J,” she added.

In the Florida case, a state court jury rejected claims by Patricia Matthey’s family that her 2016 ovarian cancer was caused by the use of baby powder contaminated with asbestos. After the verdict, Haas said the company was vindicated by the panel’s decision. “The jury appropriately found that talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer, which the company has achieved in 16 of the 17 ovarian cases tried to date,” Haas said in an emailed statement. ”

In Garcia’s Chicago case, her family argues that the plaintiff was a longtime user of J&J’s talc-based baby powder and had used the product on her children and grandchildren. The family argues that J&J knew about concerns about asbestos in its talc and failed to warn consumers. Garcia’s daughter, Stephanie Salcedo, filed the case on behalf of her family.

The family said in its lawsuit against the companies, “J&J knew that exposure to asbestos, including exposure to asbestos from inhaling asbestos-containing talc, could cause fatal diseases such as mesothelioma. It is and it is also happening.”

J&J reported earnings this week that beat estimates, taking a step toward increasing profitability following the spinoff of Kenview.

The Chicago case is Salcedo v. Cyprus Amax Minerals, number 020L004505, Calendar, J1 24067608, Cook County Circuit Court (Chicago).

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Published: April 21, 2024, 12:58 am IST