Johnson & Johnson announces $5.5 billion settlement of baby powder lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson said Monday it will pay $5.5 billion to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby powder and other talc products cause ovarian cancer, a landmark settlement aimed at closing years of contentious litigation.

The deal covers roughly 69,000 cases consolidated in federal court in New Jersey along with related state cases, accounting for 99.75% of the remaining talc claims. Plaintiffs' law firms confirmed the agreement, calling it a good resolution after a decade-long fight. The judge overseeing the federal litigation must still approve it.

J&J continues to deny wrongdoing. Vice president of litigation Erik Haas called the claims meritless and said the company remains confident it would have prevailed, but chose to settle to put the matter behind it and stay focused on developing medicines and devices. The company has long maintained its talc was safe and asbestos-free, though it stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020 in favor of a cornstarch product.

The settlement follows a significant court victory last week, when a federal judge questioned whether individual plaintiffs could prove talc specifically caused their cancer.

Unlike J&J's earlier failed attempts to resolve the claims through a shell company's bankruptcy, Monday's agreement applies only to existing lawsuits and does not cover future ones.