London — Hundreds of individuals in the UK have filed a joint authorized declare estimated to be value greater than £1 billion ($1.34 billion) towards Johnson & Johnson, accusing the U.S. pharmaceutical big of promoting child powder that it knew was contaminated with carcinogenic asbestos.
The claim entails greater than 3,000 individuals who developed numerous types of most cancers and different ailments and is predicated on inside Johnson & Johnson memos and scientific studies.
The corporate has lengthy fought hundreds of comparable instances in america, and regardless of profitable some appeals, in June final 12 months it agreed to pay $700 million in a nationwide settlement to resolve allegations that it misled clients concerning the security of its talcum-based powder merchandise in its advertising and marketing.
Simply final week, a Los Angeles jury ordered the agency to pay $966 million to the household of a girl who died from a type of most cancers after utilizing J&J merchandise.
The U.Ok. lawsuit, which covers the years 1965 to 2023, claims that Johnson & Johnson, “knew their talc merchandise contained carcinogenic fibres, together with asbestos, for greater than fifty years and selected to maintain it available on the market in pursuit of revenue.”
Regardless of the alleged information of the carcinogens in its merchandise, the agency solely took its talcum powder merchandise off cabinets in Britain in 2023, the swimsuit alleges, when it switched to a cornstarch primarily based product — three years after doing so in Canada and the U.S.
“For many years Johnson & Johnson have orchestrated a marketing campaign of denials and subterfuge,” mentioned the claimants’ lead lawyer, Tom Longstaff of KP Legislation, which has introduced the case towards J&J and Kenvue Ltd., which was spun off two years in the past, earlier than the U.Ok. Excessive Court docket. “The details are clear, contaminated talc incorporates carcinogenic materials and Johnson & Johnson knew the danger to shoppers.”
“The size of Johnson & Johnson’s company wrongdoing is extraordinary, and we will likely be relentless in holding them to account on behalf of all those that have suffered attributable to their actions,” Longstaff mentioned.
In an announcement despatched to CBS Information on Thursday, Johnson & Johnson mentioned inquiries concerning the declare “can be finest addressed by Kenvue, our former client well being enterprise, which separated from Johnson & Johnson in August 2023. As part of that separation, Kenvue retained the accountability and any purported legal responsibility for talc associated litigation exterior of america and Canada.”
Kenvue advised the BBC in an announcement that it sympathized “deeply with individuals dwelling with most cancers. We perceive that they and their households need solutions — that is why the details are so vital,” including that the security of its child powder was backed by testing by “impartial and main laboratories, universities, and well being authorities within the U.Ok. and around the globe” over years.
The corporate advised BBC that the J&J child powder “was compliant with any required regulatory requirements, didn’t comprise asbestos, and doesn’t trigger most cancers.”
Talc is a naturally occurring mineral that’s typically discovered along with asbestos in the course of the mining course of, which makes eliminating all traces of asbestos from talcum powder troublesome.
The declare alleges individuals who recurrently used Johnson & Johnson talcum powders have developed, and in lots of instances died from, ovarian most cancers, mesothelioma — one other type of most cancers — uterine fibroids and different ailments.
“My mom used it and I used it,” 63-year previous Siobhan Ryan advised CBS Information’ information companion community BBC News. “It smelled good and was gentle and beautiful. When my infants have been born I used it on them. I believed I used to be doing my finest for them … It was such a shock. We simply hugged and cried. I could not consider what I used to be listening to when the physician advised me I had stage-four ovarian most cancers.”
Siobhan, who blames her most cancers on Johnson & Johnson’s child powder, has been by means of three rounds of chemotherapy, near-fatal sepsis, and main stomach surgical procedure. Docs say her most cancers is not operable.
“They knew it was contaminated and nonetheless they bought it to new mums and their infants,” she mentioned.
In accordance with the U.Ok. declare, Johnson & Johnson started within the Sixties to fee scientists to research its talc-based merchandise. In 1969, an inside memo said that till tremolite — certainly one of six varieties of asbestos — was confirmed to haven’t any antagonistic results, its use must be minimized, and famous that talc may not be assured to be secure for infants.
By the Eighties, it was broadly accepted that every one types of asbestos have been harmful and will trigger most cancers, however Johnson & Johnson — and different companies — efficiently lobbied the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to not regulate asbestos content material in talc, based on the lawsuit.
In 2018, the FDA lastly started testing talcum powder and different associated merchandise for asbestos. A 12 months later, Johnson & Johnson voluntarily withdrew a batch of its powder after the FDA discovered asbestos fibers in a pattern.
The U.Ok. claims will likely be determined by a decide, quite than a jury, on the U.Ok. Excessive Court docket’s Manchester Circuit Business Court docket.
In an announcement, Kenvue mentioned it believes the decide will discover that its talc-based powder didn’t trigger most cancers.
Editor’s notice: This text has been up to date to right the attribution of the assertion from Kenvue Ltd. to BBC Information and to notice that it’s a separate firm from J&J, not a subsidiary.
