By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it has reached a $5.5 billion settlement that will resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby powder and other talc products cause ovarian cancer.
J&J said the settlement will resolve about 69,000 cases consolidated in federal court, and related cases in state court, totaling 99.75% of the remaining talc claims. Plaintiffs’ law firms confirmed the deal on Monday, saying that it was a good resolution after a decade-long court battle.
J&J won a significant court victory in the long-running legal battle last week, when a federal judge cast doubt on individual plaintiffs’ ability to prove that talc specifically caused their ovarian cancer.
J&J has denied that its talc products caused cancer, saying that talc was safe and did not contain asbestos. The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product.
The litigation resumed in March 2025, after being put on hold for more than three years during J&J’s repeated failed attempts to resolve the lawsuits through a shell company’s bankruptcy.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Neil Fullick)
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