Johnson & Johnson just got slapped with a massive $40 million verdict by a California jury after two women successfully argued that the company’s talc-based baby powder was responsible for their ovarian cancer, according to The Guardian. This is a critical finding because the jury in Los Angeles superior court determined that J&J knew its talc products were dangerous for years but deliberately failed to warn consumers about the risks.
The verdict splits the award between two California residents who testified about their devastating battles with cancer. Monica Kent, who was diagnosed in 2014, received $18 million. Deborah Schultz and her husband were awarded $22 million; Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. Both women stated they had used J&J’s baby powder after bathing for approximately 40 years. Their testimony included details about major surgeries and dozens of chemotherapy rounds required for their treatments.
This verdict confirms what the plaintiffs’ lawyers have been arguing for years: J&J knew about this problem for decades. Andy Birchfield, an attorney for the women, told the jury during closing arguments that the company was aware as far back as the 1960s that the product could potentially cause cancer. Birchfield did not mince words, saying, “Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers.”
J&J’s defense team is sticking to its guns, claiming the connection is baseless
Allison Brown, representing the company, argued that the only people telling Kent and Schultz that talc caused their cancers were their own lawyers. Brown told the jury that the alleged link is not supported by any major US health authority. With the EPA greenlighting PFAs in pesticides now and budget cuts on bodies like NIH, there’s little hope from them anyway. She also pointed out that no study proves talc can actually migrate from the outside of the body to reach the reproductive organs.
Naturally, J&J plans to fight this ruling. Erik Haas, the worldwide vice-president of litigation for J&J, stated that the company will “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts.” The company maintains that its products are safe, that they do not contain asbestos, and that they do not cause cancer. However, J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US back in 2020, switching instead to a cornstarch version.
This case is just the tip of the iceberg, though. J&J is currently facing lawsuits from more than 67,000 plaintiffs who claim they were diagnosed with cancer after using the company’s talc products. The majority of these claims involve ovarian cancer, but the company also faces claims alleging talc caused mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer. J&J has even been hit with substantial verdicts in mesothelioma cases recently, including one for more than $900 million in Los Angeles.
The company has tried desperately to contain the financial fallout by resolving the massive litigation through bankruptcy proceedings. Unfortunately for J&J, federal courts have rejected this proposal three separate times.
Before the bankruptcy attempts, J&J’s trial record was mixed. While they have won some trials outright and successfully appealed to reduce other large verdicts, they have also been hit with staggering awards, including one verdict that reached $4.69 billion for women who claimed baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. With 67,000 pending cases, you can bet the legal battles for J&J are far from over.
Published: Dec 15, 2025 02:30 pm