Johnson & Johnson risks UK lawsuit over talc cancer claim

UK claimants announced Wednesday legal action against US pharmaceutical and cosmetics giant Johnson & Johnson, alleging that women diagnosed with cancers were exposed to asbestos in the company's talcum powder.

J&J risks UK court action for the first time over the allegations, having faced a series of similar lawsuits in North America.

KP Law, the firm representing about 2,000 claimants, said "women who have been diagnosed with life-changing and life-limiting cancers were exposed to asbestos contained within the company’s talcum powder".

In response Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation, said "Johnson & Johnson takes the issue of talc safety incredibly seriously and always has".

Haas added that J&J's own analysis found an absence of asbestos contamination in its products and said "independent science makes clear that talc is not associated with the risk of ovarian cancer nor mesothelioma".

J&J has until the end of the year to respond to a letter sent on behalf of KP Law's clients, following which documents will be filed in the High Court.

The law firm is representing predominantly women regarding the case, and says it has been contacted by thousands more, adding that some have died of their cancers.

Lawyers claim that the US-based corporation knew "as early as the 1970s that asbestos in its talc products was dangerous but failed to warn consumers and carried on producing and selling the products in the UK until as recently as 2022".

J&J said that Kenvue, its former consumer-health division that it separated out in 2023, is responsible for "any alleged talc liability that arises outside the US or Canada".

"Decades of testing by experts... demonstrates that the product is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer,” Kenvue said in a statement.

However, in September, J&J increased its offer to settle talc claims relating to ovarian cancer in the US to around $8 billion (£6.32bn) to be paid over 25 years.

Earlier this year, the company agreed to pay $700 million to settle allegations it misled customers about the safety of its talcum-based powder products in North America.

The company did not admit wrongdoing in its settlement but withdrew the product from the North American market in 2020.

The World Health Organisation's cancer agency in July classified talc as "probably carcinogenic" for humans.

A summary of studies published in 2020 covering 250,000 women in the US did not find a statistical link between the use of talc on the genitals and the risk of ovarian cancer.

(AFP)