by dietrich knauth

New York: Johnson & Johnson is moving forward with a $6.475 billion proposed settlement of thousands of lawsuits alleging that its baby powder and other talc products contained asbestos and caused ovarian cancerThe company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The deal will allow it to resolve the lawsuits through a third bankruptcy filing of a subsidiary. This will begin a three-month voting period in hopes of reaching consensus on the settlement of all current and future ovarian cancer claims. Of the talc-related lawsuits filed against J&J, 99 percent are ovarian cancer claims, including about 54,000 lawsuits that are a centralized one. new jersey federal court Proceeding.

Courts have rejected two previous attempts to resolve the lawsuits through the bankruptcy of the subsidiary created to absorb J&J. J&J’s talc liability, LTL Management,

J&J, which says its products do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer, said its settlement is supported by a majority of lawyers representing plaintiffs who have filed cancer lawsuits against the company.

J&J said it is confident the deal will reach the 75 percent support threshold required for it bankruptcy settlement This would end the litigation entirely, shutting down future lawsuits and preventing people from opting out of the deal to pursue their own separate lawsuits.

The proposed deal would be based on J&J’s settlement with about 95 percent of people who sued the company after developing mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure, as well as settlements with U.S. states. , who have alleged that the company has failed. To warn consumers about the dangers of its talc products.

J&J did not disclose the value of the mesothelioma settlement, but said it recently recorded an incremental charge of $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024 after accounting for talc-related settlements.

In its second bankruptcy filing, LTL offered an $8.9 billion deal that would have also resolved mesothelioma cancer lawsuit and states’ consumer protection actions, in addition to the ovarian cancer claims addressed by the current deal.

Previous bankruptcy filings had put the Talc litigation on hold from 2021 to 2023, but hearings have restarted after a federal judge ruled the latest bankruptcy case would be dismissed until July 2023.

In March, J&J got a new chance to oppose the scientific evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer in a lawsuit centralized in New Jersey federal court. The judge overseeing the cases said recent changes in the law and new scientific evidence required a fresh review, and he asked J&J to submit new arguments on the science by the end of July.

J&J said it would continue to defend itself against the lawsuits while trying to garner votes on the settlement. The company said it has had success in 95 percent of the ovarian cases it has tried so far, including every ovarian case it has tried in the last six years.

But, the litigation has resulted in some large verdicts for plaintiffs, including a $2.12 billion award in favor of 22 women who blamed asbestos in J&J talc for their ovarian cancer. In the past month, J&J was recently ordered to pay $45 million mesothelioma case While winning a case against ovarian cancer.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knoth; Editing by Alexia Garmfalvi and Christopher Cushing)