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A Missouri court on Thursday ordered J & J to pay $ 4.69 billion to women and families who would have developed ovarian cancer after consuming talc.
J & J stated, in an internal memo, to the employees that although the company expresses its sympathy to the plaintiffs, it does not agree with the jury's verdict for scientific reasons. "Jury verdicts are not medical, scientific or regulatory conclusions about our product," the company said in internal communication to employees around the world.
"… And jurors can sometimes decide cases based on their emotions and sympathies, rather than the facts and the law."
The judgment was the product of a fundamentally unfair process that allowed the plaintiffs to present a group of 22 women, most of whom had no connection with Missouri, in only one case, Michael Ullmann, executive vice president and general counsel of J & J, wrote after the order of Thursday.
Women received $ 4.14 billion in punitive damages and $ 550 million in compensatory damages.
The petitioners accused the company of not warning them of cancer risks related to talcum powder, including for babies. Ullmann said the company expects to face more such lawsuits and will fight all.
In an email response to ET, J & J said that he was deeply disappointed with the verdict.
"The result of the verdict, which awarded the same amounts to all plaintiffs, regardless of their individual facts, and differences in applicable law, reflects that the evidence in the case was simply outweighed by the prejudice. this type of procedure, "added the spokesman.
J & J stated that she remains confident that her products do not contain asbestos and do not cause ovarian cancer and she intends to pursue all the appeal proceedings. She added that all the verdicts pronounced against the company before this court which was the subject of an appeal procedure were overturned and that the multiple errors present in this trials were more serious than those of previous trials, which were reversed.
A California court struck down a punitive fine against J & J in 2017, ruling that the scientific evidence provided by the plaintiffs was speculative.
Ullmann attributed the Missouri court's order to "aspects of the US legal system," which he described as complex and seemingly confusing.
The J & J Talc controversy is a long-standing problem. It began in 2009, when a South Dakota woman filed a lawsuit against the company and since then, nearly 1,000 women have sued for negligence.
In India, the Food and Drug Regulatory Authority of Maharashtra sealed the company's manufacturing plant in 2013 for allegedly using a carcinogen to make talc.
The Bombay High Court subsequently lifted the ban and while the Drug Controller stated that he was inspecting J & J's manufacturing unit, the results remained unanswered. conclusive.
J & J, which achieved a turnover of $ 13.2 billion in 2017, is reluctant to promote its talc, once considered the largest brand in the pediatric consumer segment. J & J has also reduced its advertising for its talc segment.
In its presentation to investors, the company said in January that the flagship products of its consumer business are Neutrogena, Nicorette and Tylenol.
J & J did not respond to ET's request on the size of its talcum powder business in India.
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