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Tina Bellon
(Reuters) – A Missouri jury on Thursday ordered Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) to pay a record $ 4.69 billion to 22 women suspected of talc-based products , which contain asbestos and cause ovarian cancer.
The verdict is the most important that J & J has ever seen on the allegations that its talc products are carcinogenic
. J & J denies both that its talc products cause cancer and that they contain asbestos. He claims that decades of studies show that his talc is safe and has managed to reverse previous talc verdicts for technical legal reasons.
Thursday's mbadive verdict at the St. Louis City Circuit Court included $ 550 million. According to an online Courtroom View Network trial, J & J called the lawsuit "fundamentally unfair" and said it would appeal the decision.
$ 1.31, or 1 percent, to $ 126.45 in exchanges after the hours following the award of punitive damages. The jury 's decision followed more than five weeks of testimony from nearly a dozen experts on both sides
Women and their families said that the use of baby powder and d & rsquo; Other talcum products have caused their diseases. They allege that the company knew that its talc was contaminated with asbestos since at least the 1970s, but that it had not warned consumers of the risks.
"Johnson & Johnson is deeply disappointed with the verdict, which is the result of a fundamentally unfair process," the company said in a statement. The company said it was confident that its products do not contain asbestos or cause cancer.
"Every verdict against Johnson & Johnson in this court that went through the appeal process was reversed and the multiple errors present in this test were worse" J & J successfully quashed the talc verdicts in the past, and the appeal courts have reported a 2017 decision of the US Supreme Court. Court Limits Cases Where Bodily Injury Proceedings May Be Filed
Of the 22 women in the St. Louis trial, 17 were from outside Missouri, a state generally considered friendly to plaintiffs. The practice of bringing together plaintiffs in such jurisdictions, commonly criticized by the defendants as "forum shopping", will be challenged on appeal.
Mark Lanier, the women's lawyer, in a statement following the verdict asked J & J to remove his talc "If J & J insists on continuing to sell talc, they should report it with a serious warning Said Mr. Lanier
. Most of the lawsuits brought by J & J relate to allegations that talc has caused ovarian cancer, but a small number of cases allege that contaminated talc has caused mesothelioma, a tissue cancer closely linked to osteoarthritis. exposure to asbestos
. Louis effectively combines these claims by alleging that asbestos-tainted talc caused ovarian cancer
Earlier talc trials yielded verdicts of up to $ 417 million. But this verdict, pronounced in 2017 by a California jury, as well as other verdicts in Missouri, was overturned on appeal, and challenges of at least five other verdicts are pending.
The US Food and Drug Administration commissioned 2009 to 2010, including baby powder from J & J. But Lanier told jurors that the agency and other laboratories and J & J had used imperfect badysis methods that did not correctly detect asbestos fibers.
Talc, the softest rock in the world, is a mineral closely related to asbestos and both substances can appear very close to the earth.
The plaintiffs claim that both can intermingle in the mining process. the carcinogenic substance. J & J denies these allegations, saying that rigorous testing and purification processes ensure the cleanliness of its talc
(Tina Bellon's report in New York, edited by Leslie Adler and Rosalba O & # 39; Brien)
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