J&J's Sudden Talc-Cancer Settlements Aren't Its Usual Style
- Oklahoma, California, New York suits all settled same day
- J&J says no global settlement eyed for baby-powder cases
Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
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Johnson & Johnson took the unusual step of settling three women’s claims that its talc-based products caused their asbestos-linked cancers rather than let juries decide the cases, potentially opening a new front in the growing litigation against the world’s largest maker of health-care products.
Jurors in state court in Oklahoma City Wednesday spent about three hours weighing whether J&J’s baby powder was a factor in a 77-year-old woman’s development of peritoneal mesothelioma when a judge announced the two sides had cut a deal. Details of the accord weren’t made public.