Johnson & Johnson is expected to cover $ 4.7 billion

The United States Pharmaceuticals Johnson & Johnson produced for decades a body powder with carcinogenic ingredients – and concealed the risks. Now he has to pay billions in the bill.

The US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has to hide health risks of 4.69 billion dollars (about four billion euros). It has been proven by a Missouri jury that after decades of using powdered body powder containing talc as a pharmaceutical additive, 22 women contracted ovarian cancer. Johnson & Johnson (J & J) had not warned of the product's cancer risks. The group announced an appeal

Cancer patients and their families acted as plaintiffs in the lawsuit in St. Louis, Missouri. The lawyer of one of the women, Mark Lanier, said that the jury of six women and six men had made its decision after a six-week trial and eight-hour deliberations. The amount J & J has to pay is $ 550 million in damages and $ 4.1 billion in penalties.

Johnson & Johnson has "smothered" carcinogenic asbestos in talc for over 40 years the lawyer. "We hope that Johnson & Johnson's Board of Directors will be vigilant and that it will better inform the medical profession and the public of the relationship between asbestos in the treatment of talc cancer and cancer." # 39; ovary. " Talc must disappear from the market

From the decision "deeply disappointed"

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Johnson & Johnson about the allegation. In one case in California, a group of judges also hired the group in the summer of 2017 to pay $ 417 million to a woman with cancer. A Los Angeles Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in October and ruled that the plaintiff's arguments were inadequate and vague.

Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that the company was "deeply disappointed" by the jury's decision. The process was "unfair". The lawyers had gathered a group of 22 women who, for the most part, had no connection with Missouri and who all reported having had ovarian cancer. The jury awarded them the same amount of compensation, regardless of their individual fate.

J & J Talc does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer, the company added. He "would exhaust all the options of appeal."