Johnson & Johnson again loses in court to settle the Talc affairs

A federal bankruptcy judge of Houston rejected Johnson & Johnson’s request on Monday to approve a settlement of $ 9 billion with tens of thousands of people who pursue the company to affirm that its Talc powder products caused cancer.

The proposal would have resolved almost all the current and future claims that the company’s Talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. Like the previous two efforts – in 2021 and 2023 – The agreement tried to use an element of the bankruptcy system to settle complaints.

Johnson & Johnson says that his products did not contain asbestos and that there was no proven link between his products and cancer, the judge, Christopher Lopez, wrote in his decision. Johnson & Johnson has long denied these statements, but in recent years have ceased to sell baby powder based in Talc worldwide.

More than 90,000 complaints against Johnson & Johnson and other parties are pending, far too much for the courts to be treated individually.

The attempt to settle the company and lawyers for the complainants who brought the complaints were opposed to a bankruptcy administrator of the Ministry of Justice as well as lawyers for other complainants, said the judge.

In a statement on Monday, Johnson & Johnson said: “The court unfortunately authorized a few law firms with financially conflicting reasons, who conceded that they had not recovered a penny for their customers in a decade of litigation, to defeat the crushing desire for the applicants.”