J&J to pay US$2.1b talc award as top court rejects appeal

[WASHINGTON] Johnson & Johnson must pay a US$2.1 billion award to women who claimed its baby powder was contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos, after the US Supreme Court left intact the largest verdict in the almost decade-long litigation over the iconic product.

The top US court without comment on Tuesday refused to consider J&J's objections to a St Louis jury's 2018 finding that its talc-based powder helped cause ovarian cancer in 20 women.

J&J prepared for the appeal's denial by announcing in February it was setting aside almost US$4 billion to cover the St Louis verdict. The company still faces more than 25,000 lawsuits blaming baby powder for causing cancers. J&J pulled the product off US and Canadian shelves last year.

Kim Montagnino, a J&J spokeswoman, didn't immediately return an email Tuesday seeking comment on the Supreme Court's decision not to take the appeal.

"Today justice is served," said Mark Lanier, the women's lawyer. "Twenty families now get compensated for a horrible, unnecessary disease. And J&J, the trigger for that disease, is held accountable."

Jurors in the St Louis case awarded each woman US$25 million in compensatory damages. The panel then added more than US$4 billion in punitive damages, making the award the sixth-largest in US legal history. A state appeals court cut the award by more than half last year. The original verdict sparked a significant drop in J&J's shares.

J&J has lost other cases at trial, with juries across the US ordering it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. Judges slashed some of those awards while others have been thrown out or are on appeal. J&J has won cases as well.

Asbestos, which is often found where talc is mined, is a recognised carcinogen.

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