Johnson & Johnson to replace talc-based powder with cornstarch
The company facing thousands of legal claims alleging its talc caused cancer says it will transition to all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio.
The drugmaker said on Thursday, more than two years after it ended U.S. sales of a product that drew thousands of consumer safety lawsuits.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) will stop selling talc-based baby powder globally in 2023
In 2020, J&J announced that it would stop selling its talc Baby Powder in the US and Canada because demand had fallen in the wake of what it called misinformation about the product's safety
Baby Powder cancer claims
Before the bankruptcy filing, the company faced costs from $3.5bn in verdicts and settlements, including one in which 22 women were awarded a judgement of more than $2bn.
In 2016, a Missouri state jury ordered J&J to pay $72m in damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company’s Baby Powder
A year later, a US jury ordered J&J to pay $417m to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products.