London — Hundreds of individuals in the UK have filed a joint authorized declare estimated to be price greater than £1 billion ($1.34 billion) towards Johnson & Johnson, accusing the U.S. pharmaceutical big of promoting child powder that it knew was contaminated with carcinogenic asbestos.
The declare includes greater than 3,000 individuals who developed numerous types of most cancers and different ailments and relies on inside Johnson & Johnson memos and scientific studies.
The corporate has lengthy fought hundreds of comparable circumstances in the US, and regardless of profitable some appeals, in June final yr it agreed to pay $700 million in a nationwide settlement to resolve allegations that it misled prospects in regards to the security of its talcum-based powder merchandise in its advertising.
Simply final week, a Los Angeles jury ordered the agency to pay $966 million to the household of a girl who died from a type of most cancers after utilizing J&J merchandise.
The U.Ok. lawsuit, which covers the years 1965 to 2023, claims that Johnson & Johnson, “knew their talc merchandise contained carcinogenic fibres, together with asbestos, for greater than fifty years and selected to maintain it in the marketplace in pursuit of revenue.”
Regardless of the alleged information of the carcinogens in its merchandise, the agency solely took its talcum powder merchandise off cabinets in Britain in 2023, the swimsuit alleges, when it switched to a cornstarch based mostly product — three years after doing so in Canada and the U.S.
“For many years Johnson & Johnson have orchestrated a marketing campaign of denials and subterfuge,” mentioned the claimants’ lead lawyer, Tom Longstaff of KP Regulation, which has introduced the case towards J&J and Kenvue Ltd., which was spun off two years in the past, earlier than the U.Ok. Excessive Courtroom. “The information are clear, contaminated talc comprises carcinogenic materials and Johnson & Johnson knew the chance to customers.”
“The size of Johnson & Johnson’s company wrongdoing is extraordinary, and we can be relentless in holding them to account on behalf of all those that have suffered on account of their actions,” Longstaff mentioned.
In a press release despatched to CBS Information on Thursday, Johnson & Johnson mentioned inquiries in regards to the declare “can be greatest addressed by Kenvue, our former shopper well being enterprise, which separated from Johnson & Johnson in August 2023. As part of that separation, Kenvue retained the accountability and any purported legal responsibility for talc associated litigation exterior of the US and Canada.”
Kenvue informed the BBC in a press release that it sympathized “deeply with folks dwelling with most cancers. We perceive that they and their households need solutions — that is why the information are so essential,” including that the security of its child powder was backed by testing by “impartial and main laboratories, universities, and well being authorities within the U.Ok. and around the globe” over years.
The corporate informed BBC that the J&J child powder “was compliant with any required regulatory requirements, didn’t comprise asbestos, and doesn’t trigger most cancers.”
Talc is a naturally occurring mineral that’s usually discovered along with asbestos in the course of the mining course of, which makes eliminating all traces of asbestos from talcum powder tough.
The declare alleges individuals who commonly used Johnson & Johnson talcum powders have developed, and in lots of circumstances died from, ovarian most cancers, mesothelioma — one other type of most cancers — uterine fibroids and different ailments.
“My mom used it and I used it,” 63-year outdated Siobhan Ryan informed CBS Information’ information companion community BBC Information. “It smelled good and was tender and beautiful. When my infants have been born I used it on them. I assumed I used to be doing my greatest for them … It was such a shock. We simply hugged and cried. I could not imagine what I used to be listening to when the physician informed me I had stage-four ovarian most cancers.”
Siobhan, who blames her most cancers on Johnson & Johnson’s child powder, has been by means of three rounds of chemotherapy, near-fatal sepsis, and main stomach surgical procedure. Medical doctors say her most cancers is not operable.
“They knew it was contaminated and nonetheless they bought it to new mums and their infants,” she mentioned.
In line with the U.Ok. declare, Johnson & Johnson started within the Sixties to fee scientists to research its talc-based merchandise. In 1969, an inside memo said that till tremolite — one in every of six sorts of asbestos — was confirmed to haven’t any hostile results, its use ought to be minimized, and famous that talc might not be assured to be secure for infants.
By the Nineteen Eighties, it was broadly accepted that every one types of asbestos have been harmful and will trigger most cancers, however Johnson & Johnson — and different companies — efficiently lobbied the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to not regulate asbestos content material in talc, in response to the lawsuit.
In 2018, the FDA lastly started testing talcum powder and different associated merchandise for asbestos. A yr later, Johnson & Johnson voluntarily withdrew a batch of its powder after the FDA discovered asbestos fibers in a pattern.
The U.Ok. claims can be determined by a choose, relatively than a jury, on the U.Ok. Excessive Courtroom’s Manchester Circuit Business Courtroom.
In a press release, Kenvue mentioned it believes the choose will discover that its talc-based powder didn’t trigger most cancers.
Editor’s word: This text has been up to date to right the attribution of the assertion from Kenvue Ltd. to BBC Information and to notice that it’s a separate firm from J&J, not a subsidiary.
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