Johnson & Johnson to Stop Selling Talcum Baby Powder in U.S., Canada -- 2nd Update
19 Maio 2020 - 8:22PM
Dow Jones News
By Peter Loftus
Johnson & Johnson, besieged by lawsuits, will stop selling
baby powder made with talc in the U.S. and Canada, citing a decline
in customer demand amid safety concerns about one of its most
famous products.
The move comes as J&J faces thousands of lawsuits alleging
the talc powder has harmed women who had used it for years. Some of
the lawsuits have led to costly jury verdicts against the
company.
J&J, which has been fighting the lawsuits and verdicts and
says its talc-containing powder is safe, will continue to sell a
cornstarch-based version of Johnson's Baby Powder in the U.S. and
Canada. And the company will continue to sell talc-containing and
cornstarch baby powder outside of those countries, where it says
consumer demand is significantly higher.
"Demand for talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in North America
has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits
and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a
constant barrage of litigation advertising," J&J said Tuesday
in a statement.
J&J has been facing lawsuits alleging its talcum powder was
responsible for cancer in some women who used it for feminine
hygiene for years, and in people who inhaled it.
As of March, about 19,400 plaintiffs had filed lawsuits against
the company over its talc-based powder in U.S. courts, alleging it
caused ovarian cancer and a rare cancer in tissue surrounding the
lungs called mesothelioma.
"I'm delighted to hear that they finally started taking steps to
remove talc-based baby powder from the market," said Ted Meadows,
an attorney with the Beasley Allen law firm in Montgomery, Ala.,
who represents plaintiffs in the talc litigation.
He said he hoped J&J would take steps to compensate
thousands of women he claims have been injured by the powder.
J&J didn't give any indication that stopping sales would
mean resolving the litigation. The company said it would continue
to defend the product, its safety and what it called unfounded
allegations against the product and the company in court.
The company, in denying the allegations and fighting the
lawsuits in court, has won some cases in court but lost some costly
verdicts, too.
In February, a New Jersey jury ordered J&J to pay $750
million in punitive damages to four people who said their use of
J&J's talcum powders caused mesothelioma; the judge reduced the
amount to $186.5 million, and J&J is appealing the verdict.
Johnson's Baby Powder represents about 0.5% of the company's
U.S. consumer-health sales. The business reported nearly $1.5
billion in sales last year, a fraction of J&J's more than $82
billion in total global sales for the year.
J&J relies more on prescription-drug and medical-device
sales.
Yet Johnson's is a popular brand familiar to generations of
people. Because the product contains the Johnson name, the negative
publicity about the safety concerns have dented the company's
reputation, surveys have found. And J&J shares have suffered
over concerns that its ultimate liability will be hefty, even
though some of its losses have been reduced or reversed on
appeal.
J&J also has faced an unusually large caseload of lawsuits
over a range of other products in recent years.
The baby-powder lawsuits have generally alleged that talc, a
mineral that is crushed to create Johnson's Baby Powder, can cause
inflammation that leads to cancer.
Some of the lawsuits further allege that asbestos in the powder
contributed to cancer. Asbestos, a mineral once widely used in
construction, has been linked to increased risk for
mesothelioma.
J&J, of New Brunswick, N.J., has repeatedly said its talcum
powder doesn't contain asbestos. Last October, however, J&J
recalled about 33,000 bottles of its baby powder after the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration said a laboratory test found a small
amount of asbestos in one bottle.
J&J said it issued the recall out of an abundance of
caution, and said subsequent testing of the same bottle and lot by
different labs found no asbestos.
J&J has tried to counter the allegations publicly by running
newspaper advertisements and creating a website,
"factsabouttalc.com," with information about tests that the company
says support the product's safety.
J&J said Tuesday it would wind down commercialization of the
talc-based powder in the U.S. and Canada in the coming months, and
that existing inventory would be sold through retailers until it
runs out.
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 19, 2020 19:07 ET (23:07 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Set 2024 até Out 2024
Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Out 2023 até Out 2024