Johnson & Johnson is trying once again to use the bankruptcy courts to settle tens of thousands of cases that claim its talc products cause cancer. The pharmaceutical company is now willing to pay $8.9 billion to plaintiffs over 25 years, according to CNN.
For a second time, a J&J subsidiary called LTL on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy – a strategy the company said could “equitably and efficiently resolve all claims arising from cosmetic talc litigation” in North America, according to a regulatory filing. A previous attempt to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to resolve the talc cases was rejected by an appellate court, which ruled the company couldn’t go bankrupt because it wasn’t in financial distress.
Johnson & Johnson can’t invoke bankruptcy to stop cancer lawsuits, court says
This time, J&J’s LTL spinoff upped the offer by $6.9 billion over the initial $2 billion settlement. The company says it has secured commitments from over 60,000 current claimants against J&J to support the resolution.
The company says the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. Johnson & Johnson has long held that talcum powder products are safe to use. Although J&J claims it has won the majority of its talc lawsuits, juries have awarded some customers billions of dollars in damages, siding with claimants’ arguments that the company’s talc products caused their cancer.