J&J Talc Verdict

U.S. Based Traditional Media

1. J&J Ordered to pay $417 Million in Ovarian Cancer Case

   Aug 24, 2017 | Cure

   By Brielle Urciuoli
   
   
   A California woman has been awarded $417 million after alleging that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-based Baby Powder led to ovarian cancer. The jury award may be the largest yet concerning the product.
2. Caregivers should know about talcum powder

   Aug 24, 2017 | Baltimore Sun

   By Letter to Editor
   
   
   Pardon my cynicism and hardheartedness, but just after my son had been born in 1969, warnings about the dangers of talc in baby powders for women came on the scene and have resurfaced periodically since then (“Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in lawsuit linking talcum powder to cancer,” Aug. 21).
3. Massive California verdict expands J&J's talc battlefield

   Aug 22, 2017 | Reuters

   By Tina Bellon
   
   
   A massive California verdict in a lawsuit alleging Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) talc-based products cause cancer has opened a new front in the litigation, upending the company's hopes that the cases were only gaining traction in Missouri, legal experts said.
4. Does Baby Powder Cause Cancer? A Jury Says Yes. Scientists Aren't So Sure

   Aug 22, 2017 | NPR

   By Alison Kodjak
   
   
   If you're a woman, there's a good chance you've used Johnson's Baby Powder at some point. It smells good, and it can keep you dry.
5. Science No Salve For J&J In Talc Cases, $417M Verdict Shows

   Aug 23, 2017 | Law360

   By Daniel Siegal
   
   
   Johnson & Johnson's $417 million loss in the first California jury trial over the alleged link between its talcum products and ovarian cancer, following a string of defeats in Missouri, highlights the drugmaker's uphill battle in using science to try and convince emotional jurors it hasn't lied to consumers.
6. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million in Baby Powder-Related Lawsuit

   Aug 22, 2017 | Allure

   By Macaela Mackenzie
   
   
   After a series of lawsuits, baby powder purveyor Johnson & Johnson was just ordered to pay a record-breaking $417 million over a claimed connection with one woman's terminal case of ovarian cancer.
7. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay Record $417 Million to Woman Who Claimed Baby Powder Gave Her Ovarian Cancer

   Aug 22, 2017 | Jezebel

   By Hannah Gold
   
   
   On Monday, a Los Angeles jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, a former medical receptionist dying of ovarian cancer after using the company’s Baby Powder product for decades. To date, it’s the largest amount the company has been required to pay to an individual over ties between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.
8. Does Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Cause Ovarian Cancer? Here’s What We Know

   Aug 22, 2017 | Fortune

   By Sy Mukherjee
   
   
   A California jury dealt drug and consumer health giant Johnson & Johnson its biggest blow yet Monday in an ongoing legal saga over talc products like Johnson's Baby Powder, which plaintiffs allege are linked with ovarian cancer in women who use them for feminine hygiene. J&J has consistently disputed those allegations and says the science "supports the safety" of the product. But who's right?
9. $417 million awarded to woman in baby powder ovarian cancer suit

   Aug 22, 2017 | New York Daily News

   By Constance Gibbs
   
   
   Johnson and Johnson must pay $417 million in damages to a California woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson’s Baby Powder for the majority of her life, a jury ordered Monday.
10. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in talcum powder lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Fast Company

    A jury awarded a California woman $417 million when she developed ovarian cancer after almost a lifetime of using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder, per CNN. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.
11. New Evidence Seen as Key in LA Jury's $417M Talc Verdict

    Aug 22, 2017 | Law.com

    By Amanda Bronstad
    
    
    California jurors who awarded $417 million on Monday in a talcum powder trial may well have been influenced by three new pieces of evidence, including an emailed photo that arrived just as the trial started, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case.
12. L.A. jury awards $417M in baby powder cancer lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson

    Aug 22, 2017 | Triad Business Journal

    By Anne Stych
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury that agreed there was a connection between a woman’s use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder products and her terminal ovarian cancer have awarded the woman $417 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
13. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417M verdict as talcum powder liability losses mount

    Aug 22, 2017 | FiercePharma

    By Eric Palmer
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has lost yet another talcum powder lawsuit, this time being hit with a $417 million verdict—more than the total awards in the four cases it has already lost.
14. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million in Baby Powder Cancer Suit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Observer

    By John Bonazzo
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in damages to a woman who developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s trademark baby powder for over 50 years. According to The New York Times, the plaintiff, 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, was diagnosed with the disease in 2007. She is now near death and was unable to attend the trial, though she did submit a video deposition.
15. Johnson & Johnson Will Pay $417 Million In Case Connecting Baby Powder To Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Romper

    By Kenza Moller
    
    
    On Monday, in a highly publicized verdict, a jury in California ordered healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million to a local woman who contracted ovarian cancer after years of reportedly using Johnson & Johnson baby powder. According to the CBC, it's one of 4,800 similar claims taking place across the country, and it came directly after Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay a total of $307 million after losing four trials in Missouri.
16. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417 million verdict in talc lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Healthcare Finance

    By Beth Jones Sanborn
    
    
    In a landmark lawsuit against retail giant Johnson & Johnson, a California jury has ordered the company to pay $417 million to a woman who sued the company, alleging that prolonged use of their famous talc-based baby powder for feminine hygiene gave her ovarian cancer, according to a Reuters report.
17. Top Drug Manufacturer To Florida: Don’t Use Our Drugs For Executions

    Aug 22, 2017 | DC Caller

    By Anders Hagstrom
    
    
    A subsidiary company of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, came out in protest Monday against Florida using its drugs to perform lethal injection executions.
18. $417 Million Awarded in Suit Tying Johnson’s Baby Powder to Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | New York Times

    By Roni Caryn Rabin
    
    
    In what may be the largest award so far in a lawsuit tying ovarian cancer to talcum powder, a Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in damages to a medical receptionist who developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s trademark Johnson’s Baby Powder on her perineum for decades.
19. Jury awards $417M in another Johnson & Johnson talc cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | USA Today

    By Charisse Jones
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million to a woman suffering from ovarian cancer Monday who alleged that her illness is linked to the talc in Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.
20. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in latest talcum powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | CNN

    By Jen Christensen
    
    
    On Monday, a jury awarded a California woman $417 million because she developed ovarian cancer and had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for decades. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.
21. Cancer Patient Wins Record $417 Million Payout In Johnson & Johnson Talc Case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Huffington Post

    By Doninique Mosbergen
    
    
    As Johnson & Johnson faces thousands of U.S. lawsuits over potential cancer risks of its talc-based products, a California jury ordered the company Monday to pay $417 million in damages to a terminally ill woman.
22. Johnson & Johnson to Pay $417 Million in Latest Lawsuit Linking Baby Powder to Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Cut

    By Madeline Aggeler
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson suffered another major loss in its ongoing battle over the safety of its baby powder. On Monday, a Los Angeles jury ordered the pharmaceutical giant to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after regularly using the company’s talc-based products, like baby powder.
23. California jury awards $417 million in talcum powder cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Consumer Affairs

    By Truman Lewis
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has lost another talcum powder lawsuit. A jury in California yesterday awarded a 63-year-old woman $417 million after hearing that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using J&J's talcum powder.
24. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million to woman in talcum lawsuit

    Aug 21, 2017 | The Week

    By Catherine Garcia
    
    
    A 63-year-old woman with terminal ovarian cancer was awarded $417 million on Monday after a jury in Los Angeles found Johnson & Johnson liable for not warning her about the risks of using the company's talcum products.
25. Talcum powder cancer verdict: Jury awards $417 million to dying victim

    Aug 22, 2017 | MyNewsLa.com

    By Christina Kelley
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury Monday awarded $417 million to an ovarian cancer patient who alleged her disease was caused by the use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder.
26. Ad Age Wake-Up Call: Will a Chinese Car Company Buy Jeep? and Other News to Know Today

    Aug 22, 2017 | AdAge

    By Angela Doland
    
    
    Good morning. Welcome to Ad Age's Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: Ad Age's must-read interview with the enfant terrible of advertising, Jason M. Peterson, who is Havas' co-chairman and chief creative officer, not to mention an Instagram photographer with 1 million followers.
27. L.A. jury says Johnson & Johnson must pay $417 million for causing ovarian cancer to a woman

    Aug 22, 2017 | Pulse Headlines

    By Adriana Bello
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury ruled in favor of a woman who claims Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer and ordered the company to pay $417 million to her.
28. Jury orders Johnson & Johnson to pay $417M in baby powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | NJ.com

    By Paul Milo
    
    
    A jury awarded a California woman $417 million after she developed ovarian cancer she claimed was caused by baby powder manufactured by New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson, CNN reported.
29. Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m in baby powder, cancer connection lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Cox Media

    By Natalie Dreier
    
    
    A jury in California has decided that Johnson & Johnson will pay $417 million after a woman said that she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s baby power.
30. Johnson & Johnson Pays Over £300m Compensation For Talcum Powder Cancer Link

    Aug 22, 2017 | LAD Bible

    By Michael Minay
    
    
    We've probably all had some put on our bodies at some point to prevent rubbing and chaffing - most likely when we were babies.
31. Jury Awards Woman $417 Million On Allegation Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Gave Her Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Benzinga

    By Mark Fritz
    
    
    A jury in California ordered Johnson & Johnson JNJ to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed the company’s talcum powder gave her cancer, the latest in a recent string of successful lawsuits.
32. J&J ordered to pay $417 million in trial over talc cancer risks (UPDATE-2)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Reuters

    By Nate Raymond
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson on Monday was ordered by a California jury to pay $417 million (323.03 million pounds) to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products like Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.
33. J&J Loses $417 Million Talc Verdict in First California Trial (UPDATE)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Bloomberg

    By Margaret Cronin Fisk
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on the company’s talc, in the first California trial over the product.
34. J&J Slammed With $417 Million Verdict in California Talc Cancer Trial

    Aug 21, 2017 | TheStreet

    By Kinsey Grant
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) got hit with a $417 million verdict Monday in the first California trial evaluating an alleged link between the company's talcum powder products and ovarian cancer, Law360 reported.
35. J&J Hit with $417M Verdict in 1st Calif. Talc Cancer Trial

    | Law 360

    By Daniel Siegal
    
    
    The first California jury to evaluate the alleged link between Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products and ovarian cancer on Monday set a new high-water mark compared to several Missouri juries and hit the company with a $417 million verdict for its role in causing a woman’s terminal cancer.
36. Johnson & Johnson Hit With $417 Million Verdict in Baby Powder Case

    Aug 21, 2017 | Wall Street Journal

    By Sara Randazzo
    
    
    A jury here awarded a woman with ovarian cancer $417 million Monday in a case against Johnson & Johnson , JNJ 0.35% the latest hit to the pharmaceutical company in widespread litigation over the alleged harms of its baby powder.
37. Jury awards $417M in lawsuit linking talcum powder to cancer (UPDATE -2)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Associated Press

    By Michael Balsamo
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in a case to a woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company's iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.
38. LA Jury Awards $417M to User of Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder

    Aug 21, 2017 | Courthouse News Service

    By Matt Reynolds
    
    
    A California jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder.
39. Jury Awards $417M in J&J Talcum Powder Case

    Aug 21, 2017 | The Recorder

    By Amanda Bronstad
    
    
    A jury in Los Angeles awarded $417 million to a California woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to Courtroom View Network through which ALM was monitoring the proceedings. Jurors found 9-3 that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn that its baby powder could cause the deadly disease.
40. The Latest: Plaintiff wanted to help others in talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | Associated Press

    The Latest on a Los Angeles jury ordering Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in a case alleging talcum powder causes ovarian cancer.
41. Johnson & Johnson Hit With Record Talc-Ovarian Cancer Verdict of $417 Million

    Aug 21, 2017 | Fair Warning

    By Myron Levin
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury today ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay damages of $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on years of using the company’s baby powder for feminine hygiene.
42. L.A. jury hits Johnson & Johnson with $417-million verdict over cancer link to its talc

    Aug 21, 2017 | San Diego Union-Tribune

    By Richard Winton
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury issued a $417-million verdict Monday against Johnson & Johnson, finding the company liable for failing to warn a 63-year-old woman diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer about the risks of using its talcum products.
43. J&J ordered to pay $417m in talcum powder lawsuit

    Aug 21, 2017 | Financial Times

    By David Crow
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m to a woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer as a result of using the company’s Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.
44. Jury awards $417M in another Johnson & Johnson talc cancer case

    Aug 21, 2017 | USA Today

    By Charisse Jones
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million to a woman suffering from ovarian cancer Monday who alleged that her illness is linked to the talc in Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.
45. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in latest talcum powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | CNN

    On Monday, a jury awarded a California woman $417 million because she developed ovarian cancer and had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for decades. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.
46. Johnson & Johnson loses $417M verdict in talc powder suit

    Aug 22, 2017 | UPI

    By Allen Cone
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old women who blames the company's talc powder on her ovarian cancer.
47. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417M to cancer patient Eva Echevarria

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Washington Times

    By Laura Kelly
    
    
    Johnson and Johnson, a name synonymous with gentle bath products, was assessed $417 million in damages by a Los Angeles jury on Monday after the company was found liable in a case charging that they failed to highlight the dangers of their talc powder and its link to cancer, The Los Angeles Times reported.
48. Plaintiff awarded $417M in Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Becker's Hospitality Review

    By Kelly Gooch
    
    
    A jury in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruled against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit associating ovarian cancer to talcum powder, reports The New York Times.

International Traditional Media

49. Huge talcum powder verdict opens floodgates for lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson

    Aug 24, 2017 | RT

    The $417 million California ruling against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which concluded one of the company’s talc-based powder products caused cancer, has opened a new front in litigation with thousands of lawsuits pending.
50. Cosmetics warning after €354m payout to woman who said 'talc caused cancer'

    Aug 23, 2017 | Irish Independent

    By Elish O'Regan
    
    
    Consumers should always take care when applying cosmetic products, including talcum powder, to any area of the skin, the Irish medicines' watchdog said yesterday.
51. Johnson & Johnson : to pay $417m in cancer lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Al Jazeera

    A US jury has ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products.
52. Johnson & Johnson faces $417m payout in latest talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | BBC News

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m (£323.4m) to a woman who says she developed ovarian cancer after using products such as baby powder. The California jury's decision marks the largest award yet in a string of lawsuits that claim the firm did not adequately warn about cancer risks from talc-based products.
53. Should we stop using baby powder? The experts weigh in

    Aug 22, 2017 | AAP

    By Lee Smith
    
    
    A CALIFORNIA jury on Monday ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $US417 million ($525 million) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products.
54. Johnson & Johnson faces $417m payout in latest talc case

    Aug 22, 2017 | BBC News

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m (£323.4m) to a woman who says she developed ovarian cancer after using products such as baby powder. The California jury's decision marks the largest award yet in a string of lawsuits that claim the firm did not adequately warn about cancer risks from talc-based products.
55. Woman wins £324m compensation after claiming talc powder caused her terminal ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Telegraph

    A California jury has ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $417million (£324m) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products.
56. Johnson & Johnson pays out £323million over talc baby powder cancer claim

    Aug 22, 2017 | Express

    By Laura Moway
    
    
    The verdict was the largest so far in cases claiming the company did not warn its consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products.
57. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay £324,000,000 over talc link to cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Metro News

    By Richard Hartley Parkinson
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson have been ordered to pay $417million (£324million) after the company’s iconic baby powder was found to cause ovarian cancer when used for feminine hygiene.
58. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay £323 million to dying woman who claimed talc caused her ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Sun

    By Andrea Downey
    
    
    THE makers of Johnson’s baby powder have been ordered to pay $417m (£323m) to a woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products for feminine hygiene.
59. Johnson & Johnson will have to pay £323m in a lawsuit after baby powder was linked to ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Cosmopolitan UK

    By Katie James
    
    
    A jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m (£323m) to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company's iconic baby powder for feminine hygiene.
60. Can Baby Powder Cause Ovarian Cancer? Johnson & Johnson Loses Another Lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | International Business Times

    By Pritha Paul
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson lost yet another lawsuit Monday to a woman who claimed prolonged use of Johnson's Baby Powder resulted in her getting ovarian cancer.
61. Talcum Powder Linked To Cancer As Johnson & Johnson Fined £324,000,000

    Aug 22, 2017 | UNILAD

    By Julia Banim
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson’s soft baby powder is an iconic staple of bathroom cupboards everywhere but the product has now been linked to ovarian cancer when used for feminine hygiene purposes.
62. J&J to pay $417m in talc cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Pharmaphorum

    By Richard Staines
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417 million to a woman claiming to have developed ovarian cancer after using its talc-based baby powder products for feminine hygiene.
63. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417m in latest talc cancer claim

    Aug 22, 2017 | London Loves Business

    By Gem Sofianos
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay a woman $417m who says she developed ovarian cancer after using its products.
64. J&J ordered to pay $417m fine in cancer talc case

    Aug 22, 2017 | PharmaTimes

    By Selina McKee
    
    
    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a jury in California to pay $417 million to a woman who claims to have developed ovarian cancer from regular use of its talc-based products.
65. Concerns over talcum powder causing ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Yahoo Style UK

    By Lauren Sharkey
    
    
    A lawsuit in America has given rise to a frightening thought: that talcum powder could be causing hundreds of cases of ovarian cancer.
66. $525m payout from baby powder

    Aug 22, 2017 | Daily Telegraph

    A CALIFORNIA jury on Monday ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $US417 million ($525 million) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products.
67. Johnson & Johnson loses $417M verdict in talc powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | UPI

    By Allen Cone
    
    
    A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old women who blames the company's talc powder on her ovarian cancer.
68. J&J hit with $417m bill in talc cancer claim (UPDATE -1)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Sky News

    Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has been ordered to pay a woman $417m (£323m) in the latest cancer compensation case relating to its talc-based products.
69. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay Eva Echeverria $417m over ovarian cancer talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | International Business Times

    By Brendan Cole
    
    
    A jury in California has awarded a woman who claims she developed cancer from using Johnson & Johnson products $417m (£323m) in compensation.

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    Aug 24, 2017 | Fox News

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U.S. Based Traditional Media

1. J&J Ordered to pay $417 Million in Ovarian Cancer Case

   Aug 24, 2017 | Cure

   By Brielle Urciuoli

   A California woman has been  awarded $417 million after alleging that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-based Baby Powder led to ovarian cancer. The jury award may be the largest yet concerning the product.

   Eva Echeverria, 63, from Los Angeles, was too sick to testify during the trial, but she sent a video deposition saying she had used the company’s talc-based powder for decades, even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to published reports. When she found out about the product’s potential risks last year, she stopped using it.
   
   Echeverria legal team came armed with studies dating back to 1971, when a group of researchers from Wales first saw a correlation between talcum powder and cervical and ovarian tumors.
   
   Johnson & Johnson maintains that the product is safe. CURE made several requests for comment from Johnson and Johnson. The company did not respond.
   
   “We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,” Carol Goodrich, a Johnson & Johnson representative said in a statement after the verdict. “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease.”
   
   Goodrich cited a recent statement made by the National Cancer Institute. “In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, 'The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.' We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,” she said.
   
   However, other studies about the risks of talcum powder say differently, such as one epidemiologic review conducted by researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center that found, “While mechanistic, pathology, and animal studies do not support evidence for the carcinogenicity of talc on the ovarian epithelium, epidemiological studies have indicated an association with talc use and increased OC [ovarian cancer] risk.”

   
   The study went on to say, “In 2006, a meta-analysis of 21 studies reported an approximately 35 percent increase in risk with genital exposure to talc and an earlier meta-analysis had similar findings.” But the authors did mention that in still other studies, the results were inconclusive.

   Echeverria was not the first person to be awarded damages by Johnson & Johnson for talcum powder use, and she may not be the last. In fact, more than 1,000 women in the United States have sued  the company claiming that their Baby Powder caused their cancer.
   
   This spring, a woman from Virginia was awarded more than $110 million; cases in Missouri ended up in $55 million being awarded to one plaintiff, and $72 million for another who died of ovarian cancer.
   
   Not all lawsuits that went to court ended successfully for the plaintiffs.  
   
   Two cases have been dismissed by a New Jersey judge. In March, a Tennessee woman’s claim was rejected by a jury, and while Deane Berg, of South Dakota, won her case, she was awarded no damages.
   
   But Echeverria was undeterred by those outcomes.
   
   "This case is especially tragic, as the plaintiff's cancer has reached a terminal stage, and she was too ill to be present for the verdict,” attorney  says Sandy A. Liebhard said in a press release. “While no amount of money can make up for her suffering, we believe that this jury has sent a clear message to Johnson & Johnson that its conduct in regards to talc and ovarian cancer was unacceptable,"
   
   Liebhard is a partner at Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a New York-based law firm that represents people across the nation who claim to have been  victims of medical devices, drugs and consumer products.
   
   The World Health Organization (WHO) deems talc a “possible carcinogen.” A warning label on the product might ease some women’s concerns, but  the company is under no obligation to do so. Because  the powder is considered a cosmetic product, the FDA has much looser guidelines on what must be included on the labels, compared to the regulations for drugs and medications.
   
   More trials are likely to come in the near future, and Johnson & Johnson is preparing to defend its Baby Powder in all of them.
   

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2. Caregivers should know about talcum powder

   Aug 24, 2017 | Baltimore Sun

   By Letter to Editor

   Pardon my cynicism and hardheartedness, but just after my son had been born in 1969, warnings about the dangers of talc in baby powders for women came on the scene and have resurfaced periodically since then (“Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in lawsuit linking talcum powder to cancer,” Aug. 21).

   In addition, starting that same year, I was able to find alternative baby powders without talcum powder. As much as I am usually on the side of the consumers, in all fairness these warnings have been out there for decades. Maybe Johnson & Johnson should have removed the talc, maybe their studies (funded by whom?) convinced them there was no danger. These are the risks we all face in consuming products.

   We have an abundance of information in the world today. No one can claim total ignorance of these issues and it is incumbent upon us, the consumers, to be smart about our choices.

   Celie Hanauer, Abingdon

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3. Massive California verdict expands J&J's talc battlefield

   Aug 22, 2017 | Reuters

   By Tina Bellon

   A massive California verdict in a lawsuit alleging Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) talc-based products cause cancer has opened a new front in the litigation, upending the company's hopes that the cases were only gaining traction in Missouri, legal experts said.

   The $417 million award by California jury to a California resident suggested so-called forum-shopping, in which parties seek to file cases in whichever jurisdictions seem most favorable, may not be the main problem facing J&J as it wrestles with some 4,800 outstanding talc lawsuits.

   J&J, which denies any link between talc and cancer, said in a statement it would appeal Monday's verdict but declined further comment.

   That verdict was more than the sum of all the previous talc awards, which totaled $307 million and were meted out by juries in the same state court in St. Louis, Missouri, in cases filed by out-of-state residents. A fourth of talc lawsuits nationally were brought in St. Louis after the first large verdicts there.

   J&J has cast the St. Louis court as overly plaintiff-friendly and has focused on getting the cases brought by out-of-state plaintiffs dismissed.

   "This has very much been about forum shopping," Howard Erichson, a professor at Fordham School of Law, said about the talc trials. "The fact that there has been a big verdict in California is definitely interesting."

   Monday's verdict in Los Angeles Superior Court came in a case involving a 63-year-old woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer from using Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene since childhood.

   Corporations have long fought against plaintiffs filing lawsuits in courts favorable to them, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June delivered them a big victory, holding that state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state when the alleged injury did not occur there.

   J&J appeared to be an immediate beneficiary of that ruling, which a St. Louis judge cited in declaring a mistrial in a talc case involving two out-of-state women.

   The company also said it believed the Supreme Court decision required the reversal of the four St. Louis verdicts.

   But legal experts said the verdict in the California case, in which venue was not an issue, could shift the focus back to the evidence.

   J&J shares did not react to the verdict. The company has so far not announced a litigation reserve for talc cases and analysts have said they would not be concerned until that happened.

   The first talc award against J&J was handed down in St. Louis state court in February 2016, with the jury ordering J&J to pay $72 million.

   The company prevailed in only one of the four talc trials that followed in the same court, with the other verdicts ranging from $55 million to $110 million.

   The company has decried the St. Louis court for allowing plaintiffs to present expert testimony linking talc products with cancer that the company contends is speculative and scientifically unsound. It has appeals pending on those grounds.

   J&J has contrasted the Missouri court's stance to a New Jersey state court ruling in September 2016 that disqualified plaintiffs' experts, leading to the dismissal of two talc cases. The plaintiffs' appeal of that ruling is pending.

   The Los Angeles judge allowed the testimony of some of the same plaintiffs' experts as in St. Louis.

   The California jury seemed to react similarly to the evidence, said Diane Lifton, a defense lawyer not involved in the talc case.

   "Something clearly inflamed the jury again," she said.

   Nathan Schachtman, a product liability defense lawyer, said the California verdict showed that, venue issues aside, the evidence against J&J was compelling.

   "I think it's a tough case for the defense," he said.

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4. Does Baby Powder Cause Cancer? A Jury Says Yes. Scientists Aren't So Sure

   Aug 22, 2017 | NPR

   By Alison Kodjak

   If you're a woman, there's a good chance you've used Johnson's Baby Powder at some point. It smells good, and it can keep you dry.

   But is it dangerous?

   Dr. Daniel Cramer says yes. He's a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He says talc — the mineral in talcum powder — can cause ovarian cancer.

   "Overall, women may increase their risk in general by about 33 percent by using talc in their hygiene," Cramer says.

   On Monday, a California jury awarded Eva Echeverria $417 million in a case against Johnson & Johnson. Echeverria, who is suffering from terminal ovarian cancer, claimed it was caused by Johnson's Baby Powder, which she used on her perineum for decades.

   Hers wasn't the first jury award against the company. And thousands more cases are pending.

   It has opened a long-simmering question about whether talcum powder used in the genital area can cause cancer.

   Cramer, who has served as a paid consultant on several ovarian cancer cases against Johnson & Johnson, published one of the first studies noting an association between talc and ovarian cancer in 1982.

   "This story goes back a long, long way, back into the '70s when people noted that ovarian cancer had many similarities to asbestos exposure," he says. "Meanwhile another group in England found talc that was deeply embedded in ovaries and said there might be a story here."

   In fact, talc is a mineral that is sometimes mined alongside asbestos. And asbestos, a known carcinogen, was found in the past in some talc products.

   After his first study on the talc-cancer association, Cramer followed up with an article in 1985 calling on companies like Johnson & Johnson to put warning labels on their talcum powder products.

   Johnson & Johnson declined to be interviewed for this story. The company said in a statement that it plans to appeal the California verdict.

   "We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," wrote company spokeswoman Carol Goodrich in a statement. "In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, 'The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.' We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S., and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."

   Some researchers agree that the link between talc and ovarian cancer isn't all that clear.

   The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, in 2010 called talc a possible carcinogen.

   "It's not proof positive," says Joellen Schildkraut, a professor of public health at the University of Virginia. "These studies are suggestive. They support the idea."

   Her research shows there's a stronger link between talc and ovarian cancer among African-American women than there is among white women. But to her, even that link isn't proof.

   "I would not call this conclusive. It's consistent with other reports in the past. It's suggestive of a stronger association, but it is not conclusive," she says.

   There are theories about how talcum powder could cause cancer. If women put it on their underwear or on feminine products, it could get into their reproductive system. Then, talc particles could make their way to the ovaries — research has already shown that can happen, and talc has been found in ovarian tumors. The talc could then cause irritation and inflammation that, over time, could lead to cancer.

   "We can say that it is associated with an increased risk [of cancer]," says Shelley Tworoger, a cancer epidemiologist at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. "And there are biologic mechanisms by which we think that talc could actually impact ovarian cancer. But I would stop short of saying that it necessarily causes ovarian cancer."

   But she says there's certainly enough information out there to guide women.

   "Why use it?" she says. "I don't know if I should say this or not, but ... why not just be safe and not use it?"

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5. Science No Salve For J&J In Talc Cases, $417M Verdict Shows

   Aug 23, 2017 | Law360

   By Daniel Siegal

   Johnson & Johnson's $417 million loss in the first California jury trial over the alleged link between its talcum products and ovarian cancer, following a string of defeats in Missouri, highlights the drugmaker's uphill battle in using science to try and convince emotional jurors it hasn't lied to consumers.

   A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $417 million to plaintiff Eva Echeverria, finding her daily application of J&J’s Johnson’s Baby Powder to her genital area for decades was the cause of her terminal ovarian cancer — a sum that far surpasses the eight- and nine-figure verdicts J&J was hit with after similar trials in St. Louis, which topped out at $110 million.
   
   The corporation is sticking to its guns, saying it will appeal this latest trial loss and that the scientific evidence is on its side. This position has been shared by one St. Louis jury and by a New Jersey judge who dismissed a pair of similar lawsuits before they got to trial.
   
   But Monday’s result shows that J&J will have to find a new tack if it hopes to generate a different result, with thousands of talc cases pending, as juries are liable to react viscerally to the idea of cancerous baby powder, according to product liability attorneys.
   
   Veteran mass tort defense attorney Mark Raffman, a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, said that in his experience, what gets a jury to slam a defendant with large punitive damages is a “dread” factor. Raffman said that evidence about particularly emotionally provoking injuries, such as injuries to children, or in the talcum powder cases, injuries to a woman’s reproductive organs, can “inflame” jurors.
   
   “Injuries to, in this particular case, reproductive organs — it’s an uncomfortable subject to hear about and people react to it emotionally,” he said. “The emotional tension involved in injuries to the reproductive tract is something that Johnson & Johnson has got to figure out how to defuse in these cases going forward.”
   
   In the Echeverria trial, jurors who heard that the plaintiff had all of her reproductive organs surgically removed as a countermeasure against her ovarian cancer ultimately hit J&J with $347 million in punitive damages.
   
   Raffman said that in addition to the “dread factor,” jurors are ready to impose heavy damages when companies suppress scientific studies or otherwise lie to the public to keep dangerous products on shelves— but noted that he didn’t think the evidence against J&J on this point was particularly strong.
   
   At trial, Echeverria’s team showed jurors evidence that talcum powder products made by national companies like Wal-Mart are now sold with a warning about the association between genital talc use and ovarian cancer
   
   Simmons Hanly Conroy name shareholder Jayne Conroy said that jurors are especially ready to punish a household name brand like J&J because they feel betrayed.
   
   “You don’t expect companies of that size with products that you believe and use to have these kinds of shenanigans,” she said.
   
   Last year Conroy was part of a team that convinced a pair of Texas juries to hit J&J with a pair of verdicts surpassing $1.5 billion over allegedly defective hip implants made by J&J subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.
   
   She said that jurors are willing to impose punitive damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars when they feel like they have try and change the conduct of a company, like J&J, whose value is in the billions.
   
   “You have to look at the value of the company and then you have to make those numbers mean something to the jury,” she said. “There just isn’t much more you can do besides shock with dollars when it’s a company like Johnson & Johnson, that’s so huge and so pervasive.”
   
   Despite J&J’s loss on Monday, however, Raffman said that the company has to figure out how to get through jurors’ emotional response, because the actual evidence that talc causes ovarian cancer, and that J&J ignored this truth, is “really pretty thin.”
   
   Raffman contrasted the studies at issue in the talc cases — which show a weak statistical association between genital talc use and increased rates of ovarian cancer — to asbestos litigation, where studies linking high levels of exposure to mesothelioma are basically indisputable.
   
   “It may well be this jury is an outlier,” he said. “I remain to be persuaded that there’s any science to these claims.”
   
   Product liability defense attorney Nathan Schachtman of Schachtman Law noted that much of the evidence presented to show that J&J was maliciously trying to keep regulators from requiring a warning label on its products was actually only evidence of lobbying them — efforts which were perfectly legal, but were then presented to the jury as signs of bad behavior.
   
   “‘If that’s allowed, and if companies don’t have a right to speak on their behalf and present serious scientific arguments, and if it’s put in that kind of light in front of a jury, then you’ll get verdicts like this,” he said.
   
   J&J had won exclusion of several areas of testimony proffered by Echeverria’s expert witnesses before the trial, however, and Echeverria’s team put on only roughly 20 percent as many exhibits as her St. Louis precursors, according to her attorney Mark Robinson of Robinson Calcagnie Inc.
   
   Conroy said that although the evidence was limited, Monday’s verdict shows that this can work in the plaintiff’s favor as well.
   
   “You can begin to look at the evidence and relate that evidence to a jury in an easier way with fewer documents, you begin to understand better and you make better connections between what was happening and who the players were for Johnson & Johnson,” she said.
   
   With hundreds of cases consolidated in the California mass action, and thousands pending nationwide, Monday’s verdict might send a sign to plaintiffs to head to the Golden State, Raffman said.
   
   “You already have thousands of cases, and certainly the plaintiffs bar’s appetite for bringing these cases will not be slaked by today’s verdict,” he said. “LA County in particular has got a reputation as a plaintiff-friendly venue.”
   
   Schachtman said that thanks to state laws like Proposition 65, which requires labeling of potential carcinogens, California residents are highly sensitive to the issues at stake in the talcum powder cases.
   
   “Many people in California are much more acutely aware about issues of pollution and environmental safety than elsewhere,” he said.
   
   Raffman also noted that California, simply by virtue of the size of its population, will likely start seeing more talc cases in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bristol-Myers Squibb ruling earlier this year, which limited out-of-state plaintiffs’ ability to join state court mass tort actions against defendants not based in that state.
   
   That ruling has the potential to send plaintiffs currently lined up in Missouri back to their home states, now that the St. Louis judge overseeing talc litigation in Missouri has declared a mistrial in a trial that was ongoing when that ruling came down because the trial involved plaintiffs not from Missouri.
   
   Regardless of where it defends these cases, J&J has to figure out a better way to puncture a hole in the science put forth by plaintiffs, according to Schachtman.
   
   “J&J has a burden at least going forward … to show there’s a significant systematic bias in these studies,” he said. “The issue is, are these studies based on good data?”
   

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6. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million in Baby Powder-Related Lawsuit

   Aug 22, 2017 | Allure

   By Macaela Mackenzie

   After a series of lawsuits, baby powder purveyor Johnson & Johnson was just ordered to pay a record-breaking $417 million over a claimed connection with one woman's terminal case of ovarian cancer.

   This week, a Los Angeles jury ordered the pharmaceutical company to pay a record-breaking $417 million settlement to Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old woman who developed terminal ovarian cancer, and says that she had used Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder every day since childhood, according to a report by Reuters. (Baby powder is formulated with talc powder, which some studies have linked to ovarian cancer.)

   This may be the single largest sum paid out among lawsuits involving talcum powder, according to the Associated Press.

   It's not, however, the first time Johnson & Johnson has lost a significant lawsuit over its baby powder. As we reported earlier this year, the company was ordered to pay $110.5 million (a record at the time) in connection with another case of ovarian cancer. Johnson & Johnson is currently facing over 4,000 similar lawsuits, according to Reuters.

   This suit rest on the claim that Johnson & Johnson did not adequately warn consumers about the alleged cancerous effects of using baby powder. "Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer from using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years," her lawyer Mark Robinson told the Associated Press.

   A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson said the company will appeal the decision, reports Reuters. "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," the statement read.

   We reached out to Johnson & Johnson for comment on the lawsuit. Carol Goodrich, a spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc., told Allure: "Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease. We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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7. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay Record $417 Million to Woman Who Claimed Baby Powder Gave Her Ovarian Cancer

   Aug 22, 2017 | Jezebel

   By Hannah Gold

   On Monday, a Los Angeles jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, a former medical receptionist dying of ovarian cancer after using the company’s Baby Powder product for decades. To date, it’s the largest amount the company has been required to pay to an individual over ties between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.

   Evidence in the case included internal company documents, which, according to Echeverria’s lawyer, Mark Robinson, “showed the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer.”

   Research linking talc to ovarian and cervical tumors has been produced since the 70s—Johnson & Johnson published its first study that suggested an “association” between talc and the disease in 1982. Dr. Daniel Cramer, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told NPR, “Overall, women may increase their risk [of ovarian cancer] in general by about 33 percent by using talc in their hygiene.”

   Nonetheless, Johnson & Johnson does not issue warning labels on its baby powder products, nor does federal law require it to do so. A company spokesperson told NPR on Tuesday, “We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘the weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the US, and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

   Though most studies of whether talc is carcinogens are suggestive and have been inconsistent (the International Agency for Research on Cancer has, however, classified talcum powder as a possible carcinogen since 2006), it’s not as if the jury’s still out on the matter. Some women with ovarian cancer who have brought lawsuits against the company have had their cases thrown out (thousands have sued, only a few have gone to trial), but Johnson & Johnson had also spent hundreds of millions on pay-outs before Echeverria’s winning verdict on Monday. Verdicts in Missouri have forced the company to pay more than $300 million in damages, with the largest of those pay-outs, $110 million, awarded to a woman in May.

   The New York Times reports that Robinson spoke on behalf Echeverria, who was too sick to testify, “She told me, ‘I’m not doing this for myself.’ She knows she’s going to die. She’s doing this for other women. She wants to do something good before she leaves.”

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8. Does Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Cause Ovarian Cancer? Here’s What We Know

   Aug 22, 2017 | Fortune

   By Sy Mukherjee

   A California jury dealt drug and consumer health giant Johnson & Johnsonits biggest blow yet Monday in an ongoing legal saga over talc products like Johnson's Baby Powder, which plaintiffs allege are linked with ovarian cancer in women who use them for feminine hygiene. J&J has consistently disputed those allegations and says the science "supports the safety" of the product. But who's right?

   The Los Angeles Superior Court's decision to award California resident Eva Echeverria $417 million is the latest (and by far the largest) rebuke to Johnson & Johnson, which is facing some 4,800 related cases over talc products and has already been ordered to pay more than $300 million by various juries in Missouri. J&J finally won one of the cases in March and plans to appeal all of the other verdicts.

   Click here to subscribe to Brainstorm Health Daily, our brand new newsletter about health innovations.

   Plaintiffs like Echeverria, a medical receptionist who developed ovarian cancer after decades of using Johnson's Baby Powder for hygienic purposes, point to some studies that suggest a link between using talc in the genital region (as Echeverria had) and an increased risk for ovarian cancer. Johnson & Johnson vigorously refutes those studies.

   And, in fairness to both parties, the existing evidence is decidedly mixed. First off, there is a form of talc, which is primarily made up of magnesium, silicon, and oxygen, that's clearly carcinogenic—those which also contain asbestos, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). That can potentially be a problem for talc miners who inhale the substance in its natural form (which may contain asbestos) and therefore potentially increase their risk for lung cancer. However, this "type of talc is not used in modern consumer products," writes ACS, and the "evidence about asbestos-free talc, which is still widely used, is less clear."

   When it comes to purified talc, findings "have been mixed, with some studies reporting a slightly increased risk and some reporting no increase." And as the ACS notes, existing research is unclear enough that World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of consumer talc-based products "possibly carcinogenic to humans." All told, public health experts seem to agree that there needs to be more definitive research on the matter before coming to a conclusion one way or another.
   

   
   

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9. $417 million awarded to woman in baby powder ovarian cancer suit

   Aug 22, 2017 | New York Daily News

   By Constance Gibbs

   Johnson and Johnson must pay $417 million in damages to a California woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson’s Baby Powder for the majority of her life, a jury ordered Monday.

   This is the largest payout for a case related to ovarian cancer and talcum powder so far.

   Eva Echeverria, 63, from East Los Angeles, used the powder as a feminine hygiene product for decades. Too sick to appear in court, she was awarded $70 million in compensatory damages and $357 in punitive damages, totaling $417.

   “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Carol Goodrich, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, told the Daily News in a statement.. But she added, “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

   There are about 4,800 similar claims nationally, including four lawsuits in Missouri where Johnson & Johnson dished out more than $300 million total in damages. The largest payout in those cases was $110 million. The plaintiff in one of those cases, who was awarded $72 million in damages, died before the payout.

   The issue of whether talcum powder directly causes ovarian cancer is hotly debated. Talc is a naturally occurring clay mineral composed of magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen. It is closely associated with asbestos — the two are found in the same places — but stricter quality control has meant that there has been no asbestos in talcum powder products since the 1970s.

   The National Cancer Institute has stated that there isn’t enough evidence to support a direct relationship between asbestos-free talc and ovarian cancer, citing a study by the Women’s Health Initiative in which only .7% of the women using talcum powder developed ovarian cancer.

   The American Cancer Society says that, “If there is an increased risk, the overall increase is likely to be very small.” Meanwhile, The International Agency for Research on Cancer has said that talcum powder is “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
   

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10. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in talcum powder lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Fast Company

    A jury awarded a California woman $417 million when she developed ovarian cancer after almost a lifetime of using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder, per CNN. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    It’s a stunning award not because of the large dollar amount, but because many people have no idea that there may be a link between talcum powder and cancer. It’s important to note that because talcum powder is considered a cosmetic, it’s not required to carry a label warning people about possible side effects the same way that a drug does. But that reasoning didn’t fly with the jury in California, nor in four other similar cases that found Johnson & Johnson liable for failing to warn customers about the possible carcinogenic side effects of their baby powder.

    That link, though, is still the subject of a lot of debate among the scientific community. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classifies the genital use of talc-based body powder as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” as CNN reports. However, the American Cancer Society says that when it comes to studies linking talc to increased cancer risks, “findings have been mixed,” with “some studies reporting a slightly increased risk and some reporting no increase” while “many case-control studies have found a small increase in risk.” So while the verdict may be in on the case in California, it’s still out on talc, scientifically speaking.

    That’s what Johnson & Johnson plans to argue when they appeal the jury verdict, according to a statement from the company:

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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11. New Evidence Seen as Key in LA Jury's $417M Talc Verdict

    Aug 22, 2017 | Law.com

    By Amanda Bronstad

    California jurors who awarded $417 million on Monday in a talcum powder trial may well have been influenced by three new pieces of evidence, including an emailed photo that arrived just as the trial started, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case.

    The jury, in Los Angeles Superior Court, handed up a verdict awarding Eva Echeverria $70 million in noneconomic damages and $347 million in punitive damages after finding that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn that its baby powder could cause her to get ovarian cancer. ALM monitored the jury verdict through Courtroom View Network, which covered the trial. Echeverria was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

    Thousands of women have brought lawsuits making similar claims, most of which are in California, Missouri and New Jersey. Plaintiffs’ attorney Allen Smith, of The Smith Law Firm in Ridgeland, Mississippi, has handled all six of the previous trials, five of which were in Missouri. A seventh never went to a jury after the judge granted a mistrial. Juries hearing cases linking talcum powder to cancer have previously announced four plaintiffs’ verdicts, coming to a total of $300 million in awards, the highest of which was $110 million.

    Smith credited Monday’s award to three new pieces of evidence that other jurors hadn’t heard before:

    • Evidence that baby powder products made by other companies sold at Walmart and Dollar Tree had warnings on the bottles about the risks of ovarian cancer. Plaintiffs’ lawyers found out about the labels after a client of Ted Meadows, a principal at Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles in Montgomery, Alabama, one of the members of the trial team, emailed a photo of one such warning to them just before the Los Angeles trial began. “That was very much news to us,” Meadows said. “The way it played out in trial, I think it was news to J&J.”

    • Evidence that two individuals involved in the Cosmetic Industry Review, which has deemed talcum powder to be safe, had received payments from Johnson & Johnson for speeches and other engagements. Smith said he discovered the payments while cross-examining the group’s former director, Alan Andersen, who was a defense witness.

    • Evidence that a Johnson & Johnson epidemiologist, Dr. Douglas Weed, had been sanctioned in a separate case in North Carolina over lying under oath about whether he had notes to his expert report, plaintiffs attorneys said.

    “J&J brought these unbelievable and non-credible witnesses on an issue so important like this,” Smith said. “Couple that with the fact other companies are warning and have been warning for eight to 12 months now. That was new evidence that was very compelling.”

    Spokeswoman Carol Goodrich declined to address the specifics of the case. She said in a statement: “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s baby powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s baby powder.”

    At the start of trial, Johnson & Johnson’s lawyers objected numerous times to plaintiff attorney Smith’s opening statement and sought a mistrial minutes later.

    Johnson & Johnson was represented by Bart Williams and Manuel Cachán, both Los Angeles partners at Proskauer Rose, the same lawyers who in March got the only defense verdict over talcum powder.

    The new evidence that came into the California case could play a role in the next talcum powder trial, which is set for Oct. 16 in Missouri.

    “We certainly think it is evidence that should be presented, and we’ll make every attempt to do so,” Meadows said.

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12. L.A. jury awards $417M in baby powder cancer lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson

    Aug 22, 2017 | Triad Business Journal

    By Anne Stych

    A Los Angeles jury that agreed there was a connection between a woman’s use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder products and her terminal ovarian cancer have awarded the woman $417 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, was unable to attend the trial because of her illness, but said in a recorded deposition that she used Johnson’s Baby Powder from age 11 until 2016. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007 and is now near death, the Los Angeles Times reported.

    There are 300 lawsuits in California and 4,500 in the rest of the United States claiming Johnson & Johnson ignored studies linking its products to cancer, per the Times.

    In March, a Missouri court sided with Johnson & Johnson and talc supplier Imerys Talc in a lawsuit by a Tennessee resident who said the product caused ovarian cancer.

    The decision came after three consecutive verdicts in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson that awarded $197 million total to plaintiffs.

    Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that science supports the safety of its products and it will appeal the verdict.

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13. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417M verdict as talcum powder liability losses mount

    Aug 22, 2017 | FiercePharma

    By Eric Palmer

    Johnson & Johnson has lost yet another talcum powder lawsuit, this time being hit with a $417 million verdict—more than the total awards in the four cases it has already lost.

    A jury in Los Angeles Monday awarded 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages, the Los Angeles Times reported. The jury decided that there was a connection between Echeverria’s ovarian cancer and her use of J&J’s powder.

    In a video deposition, she testified that she had used the product from the time she was 11 until last year when she heard about the cases that had alleged a link between the cancer and the powder. She was diagnosed in 2007. She said she would have stopped using the product if the label had warned about a link between cancer and use of the powder.  

    J&J, which said it will appeal the verdict as it has the others, has steadfastly denied there is any connection and has pointed to scientific studies in defense of its product.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” J&J spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in an emailed statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’”

    Johnson & Johnson has lost four talcum liability cases in Missouri, with jury awards of $72 million, $55 million, $70 million and $110 million. It has won three others but has reported that there are another 4,800 backed up talcum claims still waiting to be addressed.  

    Despite the string of losses, legal liability experts expect the company to keep fighting them, saying it has science on its side.

    “If Johnson & Johnson thought the plaintiffs had a silver bullet, their strategy might be different,” Mark Raffman, a partner at the Goodwin law firm in Washington, D.C., told FiercePharma recently.

    He explained that the plaintiffs are trying to prove an “industry conspiracy” to hide the risks of routine talcum use, but said that it might be a stretch.

    “From what I’ve read, they don’t have evidence to back that up and aren’t going to find it.”

    Ted Meadows, one of the plaintiff attorneys in the Los Angeles case told FiercePharma that he doesn’t expect J&J to give up and go home, but that neither will he and his colleagues. "If they want to keep trying cases one by one, then that’s what we will do.”

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14. Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million in Baby Powder Cancer Suit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Observer

    By John Bonazzo

    A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in damages to a woman who developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s trademark baby powder for over 50 years. According to The New York Times, the plaintiff, 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, was diagnosed with the disease in 2007. She is now near death and was unable to attend the trial, though she did submit a video deposition.

    There is no advisory on Johnson’s talcum powder warning of a link to ovarian cancer—Echeverria said she would have stopped using the powder if there had been. She developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,” the lawsuit stated.

    There is no advisory on Johnson’s talcum powder warning of a link to ovarian cancer—Echeverria said she would have stopped using the powder if there had been. She developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,” the lawsuit stated.

    The jury’s award included $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    Johnson & Johnson, which reported profits of $16.5 billion last year, vowed to fight the verdict.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Carol Goodrich, director of corporate media relations for the pharmaceutical giant, said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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15. Johnson & Johnson Will Pay $417 Million In Case Connecting Baby Powder To Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Romper

    By Kenza Moller

    On Monday, in a highly publicized verdict, a jury in California ordered healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million to a local woman who contracted ovarian cancer after years of reportedly using Johnson & Johnson baby powder. According to the CBC, it's one of 4,800 similar claims taking place across the country, and it came directly after Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay a total of $307 million after losing four trials in Missouri.

    In the California case, 63-year-old Eva Echeverria said she had been using Johnson & Johnson baby powder since she was 11, as part of her feminine hygiene care, according to CNN. She said she only stopped using the talcum powder last year, when she read a news story linking a woman's ovarian cancer to the powder. If there had been a warning label on the product, Echeverria testified, she wouldn't have used it. Johnson & Johnson is preparing to appeal the verdict.

    In a statement provided to Romper, Carol Goodrich, spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., said:Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease. We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder. ... We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.

    In the statement, Goodrich pointed to a review conducted by the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board, which wrote that the "weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer."

    Echeverria is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital, according to the Associated Press, and her lawyer said she simply wanted Johnson & Johnson to label its products with appropriate warnings.

    "Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years," attorney Mark Robinson told the Associated Press. He continued:She really didn’t want sympathy. She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women. ... Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product.

    The verdict on whether talcum powder is safe to use or not seems to be out, at the moment. Some studies, such as the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board, haven't found sufficient evidence to condemn the product. According to the American Cancer Society, the International Agency for Research on Cancer says genital use of talcum powder can be "possibly carcinogenic to humans." Overall, it seems like further studies are necessary — but in the meantime, if you have your doubts about its safety, there are plenty of other talc-free baby powders that can be used both on baby's bottoms and elsewhere.

    Monday's verdict marked the largest amount awarded in a talcum case against Johnson & Johnson. The company is now preparing for further trials against their talcum powder.

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16. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417 million verdict in talc lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Healthcare Finance

    By Beth Jones Sanborn

    In a landmark lawsuit against retail giant Johnson & Johnson, a California jury has ordered the company to pay $417 million to a woman who sued the company, alleging that prolonged use of their famous talc-based baby powder for feminine hygiene gave her ovarian cancer, according to a Reuters report.

    The verdict, the culmination of a lawsuit filed by 63-year-old Eva Echeverria, is the largest of numerous lawsuits that accuse Johnson & Johnson of ignoring studies that linked its baby powder and shower products to cancer and of failing to sufficiently warn customers of the cancer risks. Echeverria's suit was the first California talc case to go to trial, though there are hundreds more in process.

    The verdict included $347 million in punitive damages and $70 million in compensatory damages, as a jury found there was a connection between Echeverria's cancer and her use of the baby powder, published reports said.

    [Also: Embattled scope maker Olympus slapped with $6.6 million verdict in superbug outbreak case]

    She testified that she had used the powder from 11 years old, and stopped in 2016 after seeing a news story about a woman with ovarian cancer who had also used the product. If there had been a warning on the product, she said she would have ceased to use it.

    Echevarria was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

    Johnson & Johnson currently faces 4,800 other claims nationwide similar to Echeverria's and are also dealing with $300 million in verdicts against them stemming from cases in Missouri. Numerous lawsuits are pending in that state as well.

    Johnson & Johnson said it plans to appeal the verdict, saying they are "guided by the science" that shows their products are safe, reports said.

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17. Top Drug Manufacturer To Florida: Don’t Use Our Drugs For Executions

    Aug 22, 2017 | DC Caller

    By Anders Hagstrom

    A subsidiary company of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, came out in protest Monday against Florida using its drugs to perform lethal injection executions.

    Florida resorted to using J&J’s etomidate anesthetic after the state ran out of the more traditional sedative midazolam earlier this year. The state plans to use the drug for the first time ever Thursday on Mark Asay, who was convicted for a 1987 double murder, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

    The company protests the use of its drug on the grounds that it hasn’t received government approval for use in executions. Etomidate would be the first drug administered to Asay on Thursday, followed by a second drug to induce paralysis and a third to stop his heart.

    “We do not support the use of our medicines for indications that have not been approved by regulatory authorities,” a Janssen spokesman told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We do not condone the use of our medicines in lethal injections for capital punishment.”

    J&J is one of several drug manufacturers to publicly oppose their drugs being used for lethal injections. Baxter International, McKesson, Pfizer, and Roche Holding have all condemned lethal injections, citing the possibility of pain for those being executed. Critics say the companies only hold the stance to gain public approval, and the Florida Supreme Court ruled last week that Asay’s execution could move forward because he only faced a negligible risk of pain.

    Some of these companies are facing public relations crises already. McKesson had to fork over $150 million to the Department of Justice in January for its role in sparking the opioid epidemic in the U.S. The pharma giant is also facing lawsuits from the cities of Louisville, Cincinnati, and several other jurisdictions for the same reason. (RELATED: Big Pharma Fighting 25 Lawsuits For Role In Drug Epidemic)

    A California Court ordered J&J Monday to pay a woman $417 million in damages after she got cancer from using the company’s baby powder for decades.

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18. $417 Million Awarded in Suit Tying Johnson’s Baby Powder to Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | New York Times

    By Roni Caryn Rabin

    In what may be the largest award so far in a lawsuit tying ovarian cancer to talcum powder, a Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in damages to a medical receptionist who developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s trademark Johnson’s Baby Powder on her perineum for decades.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, of East Los Angeles is one of thousands of women who have sued the consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson claiming baby powder caused their disease, pointing to studies linking talc to cancer that date to 1971, when scientists in Wales discovered particles of talc embedded in ovarian and cervical tumors.

    Only a few lawsuits have gone to trial, but so far most of the decisions have gone against the company. In May, a Missouri jury awarded $110 million to a Virginia woman, a year after Missouri juries awarded $55 million to one plaintiff and $72 million to a woman who died before the verdict. Another woman, Deane Berg of Sioux Falls, S.D., won a lawsuit, but the jury did not award damages.

    In March, a St. Louis jury rejected a Tennessee woman’s claim that Johnson & Johnson’s powder caused her ovarian cancer, and a New Jersey judge dismissed two talcum powder lawsuits against the company, a company spokesman said.

    Many women sprinkle baby powder on their inner thighs to prevent chafing, or use it on their perineum, sanitary pads or underwear for its drying and freshening effects.Continue reading the main story

    Ms. Echeverria, who was too sick to testify in court and gave a videotaped deposition, started using Johnson’s Baby Powder when she was 11 and continued after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, unaware that some studies had linked talc to cancer, said her lawyer, Mark Robinson. She stopped using it after hearing news reports of a verdict in another lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, he said, and now wanted to warn other women.

    “She told me, ‘I’m not doing this for myself,’” Mr. Robinson said. “She knows she’s going to die. She’s doing this for other women. She wants to do something good before she leaves.”

    A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, Carol Goodrich, said the company would appeal the verdict handed up by a jury in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County and was preparing for additional trials. The company “will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” she said.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Ms. Goodrich said in a statement. But she added, “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    The company statement pointed to a National Cancer Institute report in April that said, “The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.”

    But elsewhere, the cancer institute uses more ambivalent language, saying “it is not clear” if talcum powder increases the risk of ovarian cancer.

    Though numerous studies have linked genital talc use to ovarian cancer, the research findings have not been consistent. They consist mostly of epidemiological or population studies, which cannot conclusively prove a cause-and-effect relationship between an exposure and later development of cancer.

    But scientists have hypothesized that talc might lead to cancer because the crystals can move up the genitourinary tract into the peritoneal cavity, where the ovaries are, and may set off inflammation, which is believed to play an important role in the development of ovarian cancer.

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2006 classified talcum powder as a possible human carcinogen if used in the female genital area, but no federal agencies have acted to remove talcum powder from the market or add warnings.

    Talc is a naturally occurring clay mineral composed of magnesium and silicon that is mined in proximity to asbestos, a known carcinogen, and the Food and Drug Administration asks manufacturers to take steps to avoid contamination with asbestos.

    Talc is used in many cosmetics products, including one formula of Johnson’s Baby Powder; another formula uses cornstarch, which has not been implicated in any studies or lawsuits about ovarian cancer.

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19. Jury awards $417M in another Johnson & Johnson talc cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | USA Today

    By Charisse Jones

    A Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million to a woman suffering from ovarian cancer Monday who alleged that her illness is linked to the talc in Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.

    The judgment, reached after a roughly one-month long trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, includes $347 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson. It was the latest among several verdicts against the consumer-products maker, with about 2,000 women having filed similar cases.

    In the latest verdict, plaintiff Eva Echeverria alleged that Johnson & Johnson was aware of potential dangers from consistently using its talcum-based products for personal hygiene but refused to warn the public.

    “My client's dying,'' attorney Mark Robinson said Monday, adding that she was too ill to attend the trial and is now living with her daughter and grandson. "But she feels good today that maybe women in America and maybe even Johnson & Johnson will get the message.’’

    Robinson said Echeverria used the Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder sometimes twice a day for 41 years, continuing to do so even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. It was only in February, 2016, when she saw a news report about another woman who'd brought a lawsuit after allegedly becoming ill from talcum-based products that Echeverria finally stopped using it.

    Johnson & Johnson said that it will appeal the jury's decision.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,'' Johnson & Johnson Consumer spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.  "We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.''

    But Robinson said that he believes the jury was swayed in part by Johnson & Johnson's own documents, dating back to 1964, that purport to show that the company knew there was a risk of ovarian cancer from using talcum powder for feminine hygiene.

    "My client is now hoping that  Johnson & Johnson will start warning women about the risk of using talcum powder,'' he said.

    A St. Louis jury in May awarded $110.5 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. And three other juries in St. Louis reached similar conclusions, awarding a total of more than $300 million to the plaintiffs.
    

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20. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in latest talcum powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | CNN

    By Jen Christensen

    On Monday, a jury awarded a California woman $417 million because she developed ovarian cancer and had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for decades. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old from Los Angeles, said she had been using the powder as a regular part of her feminine hygiene routine since she was 11 years old. She stopped using it in 2016, after she read a news story about another woman who used it and had ovarian cancer.

    Echeverria’s is the first of hundreds of similar cases in California to be decided. Juries elsewhere have returned four other verdicts against Johnson & Johnson, and another case in New Jersey was dismissed. There are thousands of similar cases going through state and federal courts right now.

    Echeverria testified that had there been a warning label on the product, she would have stopped using it.

    The company has no legal obligation to put such a label on its product. Because talcum powder is legally considered a cosmetic, it does not have to undergo a review by the US Food and Drug Administration like a drug would. But it would have to be properly labeled with ingredients and other information, and the product “must be safe for use by consumers under labeled or customary conditions of use,” according to the agency.

    Some other talc-based powders on the market carry labels that mention possible risk of ovarian cancer after frequent application in the female genital area.

    Scientific studies over the years have produced a mix of results. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classifies the genital use of talc-based body powder as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The US National Toxicology Program has not fully reviewed talc as a possible carcinogen, according to the American Cancer Society, which says it isn’t clear whether the products increase a person’s cancer risk.

    Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that it will begin the appeals process in the California case.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Carol Goodrich, a representative for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”
    

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21. Cancer Patient Wins Record $417 Million Payout In Johnson & Johnson Talc Case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Huffington Post

    By Doninique Mosbergen

    As Johnson & Johnson faces thousands of U.S. lawsuits over potential cancer risks of its talc-based products, a California jury ordered the company Monday to pay $417 million in damages to a terminally ill woman.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, who is undergoing treatment in hospital for ovarian cancer, testified through a video deposition that she’d used Johnson’s Baby Powder for feminine hygiene for more than 50 years before halting the practice in 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported. She only stopped after watching a news story about a woman with ovarian cancer who had also used the talc for a similar purpose, she said.

    At the time, Echeverria had already been treated for ovarian cancer for almost a decade. 

    Agreeing with the plaintiff that there was a connection between her cancer and her use of Johnson & Johnson’s products containing talc, a Los Angeles Superior Courtjury awarded Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million, a record total in punitive damages on Monday. 

    As Reuters notes, the verdict was the largest sum that’s been awarded in a series of talcum powder lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.

    In May, a jury in St. Louis, Missouri, ordered the company to pay $110.5 million to a 62-year-old Virginia woman, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products for many decades.

    The company lost three other similar trials in Missouri last year, which it paid out a total of more than $300 million in damages for.  

    Speaking after the verdict, Echeverria’s lawyer said his client hoped her court win would compel Johnson & Johnson to clearly label their talc products with health warnings. 

    “Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,” Mark Robinson told The Associated Press. “She really didn’t want sympathy. She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would appeal Monday’s verdict “because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    The company is currently facing almost 5,000 similar claims across the United States, according to Reuters.

    Definitive scientific evidence linking talcum powder use to cancer is lacking. However, the American Cancer Society notes that some studies have suggested “a very slight increase in risk of ovarian cancer in women who used talc on the genital area.”

    The organization added that cornstarch powders, which can be used as an alternative to talc-based ones, have not been linked to any female cancers.

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22. Johnson & Johnson to Pay $417 Million in Latest Lawsuit Linking Baby Powder to Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Cut

    By Madeline Aggeler

    Johnson & Johnson suffered another major loss in its ongoing battle over the safety of its baby powder. On Monday, a Los Angeles jury ordered the pharmaceutical giant to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after regularly using the company’s talc-based products, like baby powder.

    In her lawsuit, Eva Echeverria, 63, said she developed terminal ovarian cancer in 2007 after using Johnson’s baby powder on a daily basis since she was 11-years-old. Her lawyers argue that Johnson & Johnson did not adequately warn consumers about the cancer risks associated with regularly using talc-based products.

    Echeverria’s is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought against the company regarding concerns over the safety of its baby power. More than 1,000 other individuals have filed similar lawsuits, and so far Johnson & Johnson has lost four of the five baby powder cases brought before juries.

    Prior to Echeverria’s record-breaking verdict, the highest amount awarded to a single individual in a similar case was in May, when the company was ordered to pay $110 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products for over 40 years.

    A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson’s vehemently denied the allegations, and said the company would appeal the decision “because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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23. California jury awards $417 million in talcum powder cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Consumer Affairs

    By Truman Lewis

    Johnson & Johnson has lost another talcum powder lawsuit. A jury in California yesterday awarded a 63-year-old woman $417 million after hearing that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using J&J's talcum powder.

    The company faces more than 5,000 lawsuits over its talc products. It has lost four cases in St. Louis courts totaling more than $300 million, according to Bloomberg.

    “We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” the company said in a statement, adding that science "supports the safety" of its products.

    In May, Johnson & Johnson lost a $110 million case to plaintiff Lois Slemp, who developed cancer after using the company's talcum products for four decades.

    Monday's case was the first to be heard by a California jury. The jurors deliberated for more than two days after a three-week trial. 

    The plaintiff in the case, Eva Echeverria, charged that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in April 2007 and said she had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products since the 1950s.A known hazard?

    According to Echeverria’s lawsuit, scientists knew as early as the 1960s that talcum powder is a carcinogen and that using it in the genital area increases the risk of ovarian cancer.

    Echeverria’s lawyer Mark Robinson urged Johnson & Johnson to change its policy and start warning the public about the risks associated with its talc products.

    “J&J needs to see they not only have verdicts against them in St. Louis, they now also have them in Los Angeles,” Robinson said outside the courtroom, according to Bloomberg. “There’s a problem all over the country with women using talcum powder on daily basis for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.”

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that scientists have raised the possibility of a link between talcum powders and ovarian cancer since the 1960s but says the findings have not been conclusive.

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24. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million to woman in talcum lawsuit

    Aug 21, 2017 | The Week

    By Catherine Garcia

    A 63-year-old woman with terminal ovarian cancer was awarded $417 million on Monday after a jury in Los Angeles found Johnson & Johnson liable for not warning her about the risks of using the company's talcum products.

    Eva Echeverria's lawsuit is one of 4,500 in the United States that allege Johnson & Johnson disregarded studies that link its baby powder and Shower to Shower products with ovarian cancer. The jury awarded her $347 million in punitive damages and $70 million in compensatory damages, and found there was a connection between her cancer and the powder. Echeverria, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, said she started using Johnson & Johnson's baby powder at age 11 and didn't stop until 2016; Echeverria testified she would have quit much sooner had she known about the link.

    Her lawsuit cited a 1982 study that showed woman who put talc on their genitals had a 92 percent increased risk for ovarian cancer, with the head researcher telling Johnson & Johnson it should put warning labels on its products, the Los Angeles Times reports. Johnson & Johnson, which said it plans on appealing the verdict, cited a different study from 2000, where researchers stated there was "no overall association" between talc use and epithelial ovarian cancer, but there was a "modest elevation in risk" for the type of cancer Echeverria has — serious ovarian cancer. She was not in the courthouse when the jury made its ruling, her attorney said, because she was too ill to attend.

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25. Talcum powder cancer verdict: Jury awards $417 million to dying victim

    Aug 22, 2017 | MyNewsLa.com

    By Christina Kelley

    A Los Angeles jury Monday awarded $417 million to an ovarian cancer patient who alleged her disease was caused by the use of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder.

    But New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson maintained that Echeverria’s allegations were not supported by scientific evidence. The company has lost four out of five similar trials over the past two years.

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,”‘ Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, of Los Angeles, was among seven women who filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court in July 2016, alleging that for years they used talcum powder sold by Imerys Talc America Inc. and Johnson & Johnson according to its instructions.

    “We are grateful for the jury’s verdict on this matter and that Eva Echeverria was able to have her day in court,” said her attorney, Mark Robinson. “These cases are about fighting for justice for women all over California who are suffering from ovarian cancer because of Johnson & Johnson’s covering up the truth for so many years.”

    Echeverria said she began using the talcum powder when she was 11 years old and did not stop until January 2016, when she saw a news story about another woman who also had ovarian cancer and had used the product. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, when doctors removed a softball-sized tumor.

    She said she would have stopped using the powder if Johnson & Johnson had warned her about its dangers on the label.

    The verdict following a four-week trial at the Central Civil West courthouse — consisting of $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages — was the largest yet in lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products and the first in California to go to trial.

    Echeverria’s complaint stated that studies in 1971 and 1982 revealed a link between talc and ovarian cancer. Based on the studies and other allegations of later public health studies and other information, she alleged that the company was aware, or should have known, it was marketing a product harmful to women.
    

    
    

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26. Ad Age Wake-Up Call: Will a Chinese Car Company Buy Jeep? and Other News to Know Today

    Aug 22, 2017 | AdAge

    By Angela Doland

    Good morning. Welcome to Ad Age's Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: Ad Age's must-read interview with the enfant terrible of advertising, Jason M. Peterson, who is Havas' co-chairman and chief creative officer, not to mention an Instagram photographer with 1 million followers.

    In a Q&A with Ad Age editor Brian Braiker, Peterson aims some zingers at the industry ("advertising right now is in this creative fucking nowhere's land") and predicts where things are going. "Unless a brand really has a social voice, unless they stand for a set of beliefs, unless they're a social brand, they're not going to exist two years from now. Most CMOs are scared. Most CMOs are admitting to us that they don't know what the fuck they're doing." (Not that anyone's counting, but he dropped the f-bomb 13 times in the interview.)

    Great Wall 
    A Chinese automaker, Great Wall Motor Co., is interested in buying the Jeep brand from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Automotive News reports. According to analysts, the Jeep brand is "unquestionably the most valuable part of FCA's portfolio and theoretically worth more on its own than the automaker as a whole," the report says. The Wall Street Journal notes that Jeep is a "world-wide symbol of American military and manufacturing might" and says Great Wall's interest is "the latest sign of an industry in the midst of a global reshuffling." Other Chinese car companies own the Volvo and MG brands.

    Top 10 list
    Millennials' 10 favorite brands are Apple, Nike, Samsung, Target, Amazon, Sony, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Coke and Google, according to a study from St. Louis, Mo.-based agency Moosylvania. What's the takeaway? As Ad Age's Megan Graham writes, "Basically, a brand has to improve a millennial's own brand, whether it's making them appear to be socially responsible (think TOMS or Warby Parker), stylish-looking or even help them be funny, if they can share brand content with their networks."
    ICYM: For a deep dive on millennials, read this week's Ad Age cover story by Adrianne Pasquarelli.

    Agencies' Got Talent
    Talent is the big issue for agencies. How do you attract and keep the best people? Ad Age's Megan Graham dug around and came up with 14 of the smartest ideas, from organizing playful outings (Dentsu Aegis Network's Firstborn took employees to trapeze classes) to giving business travelers a reward (GroupM's Mindshare lets people tack a free day on to any trip to a remote office, on the company's dime.) And sometimes employees just need to hear that they're doing a good job, or they start to wonder.

    Just briefly:

    Facebook fail: Tweens and teens are bailing on Facebook, opting instead for younger platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, eMarketer says. As Ad Age's George Slefo reports, Facebook is expected to see usage drop 3.4% this year among people aged 12 to 17.

    Burger bummer: McDonald's may shut down in half of India, as Quartz reports. It's the result of a legal battle with one of its joint-venture partners, which has 169 outlets.

    Shakeup: Top editors at the Los Angeles Times have been ousted, and veteran digital media exec Ross Levinsohn was named publisher and chief executive, the paper says. He has worked previously at Fox and Yahoo.

    Snap: CNN is working with Snapchat on a new daily news show. As Ad Age's Jeanine Poggi reports, "CNN promises it won't be dumbing down the news for the platform."

    Number of the day: $417 million. That's the record sum a jury awarded a California woman who developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for feminine hygiene for decades, as Associated Press reports.

    Instagram of the day: Actress Louise Linton, who wed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in June, posted an Instagram of her husband and herself getting off a government plane after a trip on official business. She tagged designer brands she was wearing, ("#rolandmouret pants #tomford sunnies, #hermesscarf #valentinorockstudheels #valentino.") Some people didn't appreciate that, or her response to critics. HuffPost called it Linton's 'Let Them Eat Cake' moment on Instagram." Linton deleted the post and made her account private.

    Ads of the day: The late Jerry Lewis was an actor, comedian, director and philanthropist, but he also made some ads. Ad Age's Judann Pollack compiledsome of the best, including a demo of a technological marvel from 1963 -- a Polaroid camera -- and a very 1980s ode to 7-Eleven coffee.

    
    

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27. L.A. jury says Johnson & Johnson must pay $417 million for causing ovarian cancer to a woman

    Aug 22, 2017 | Pulse Headlines

    By Adriana Bello

    A Los Angeles jury ruled in favor of a woman who claims Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer and ordered the company to pay $417 million to her.

    Eva Echeverria said she used Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products such as the Baby Powder for feminine hygiene. Echeverria was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and the lawsuit says the J&J was responsible for her affliction.

    The lawsuit also said Johnson & Johnson failed to warn consumers about the potential cancer risks of its talc-based products. The company said it would appeal the decision.Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in punitive and compensatory damages

    The Los Angeles Superior Court jury’s verdict included $70 million in compensatory damages, as well as $347 million in punitive damages, according to a spokeswoman for Echeverria’s lawyers. Johnson & Johnson issued a statement following the decision, stating the company will appeal.

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” said the statement, according to Reuters.

    At the trial, Echeverria’s lawyers said Johnson & Johnson had encouraged women to use its talc products despite knowing of years of studies that have linked ovarian cancer diagnoses and deaths to genital talc use.

    This was the sixth completed trial against the company claiming the talcum powder in Johnson & Johnson’s popular bath products causes ovarian cancer and that the New Jersey-based company has failed to warn consumers about the risks. Johnson & Johnson’s attorneys argued that several scientific studies and federal agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have not found that talc-based products are carcinogenic.

    Mark Robinson, Echeverria’s attorney, said his client expected the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to include additional warnings on its talcum products.

    “Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,” said Robinson, according to Chicago Tribune. “She really didn’t want sympathy. She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”Johnson & Johnson is appealing four other similar cases

    The company won a similar trial in March but lost another four, causing J&J to award over $300 million in compensatory damages. One of those cases included a Virginia women who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012, who claims she used J&J talcum powder for more than 40 years. She won the lawsuit, and a St. Louis, Missouri jury in May awarded her $110.5 million.

    The three remaining cases reached similar outcomes last year, as judges awarded the women with $72 million, $70.1 million and $55 million, for a combined total of $307.6 million. However, the four cases are now on appeal.

    The Monday J&J statement also said the company sympathizes with those affected by ovarian cancer, but that science supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. The company said talc, one of the ingredients in powder, is safe to use in cosmetic products and that J&J’s baby powder is labeled appropriately.American Cancer Society: Studies linking ovarian cancer with talc are ‘mixed’

    Johnson & Johnson also pointed to an April finding by a National Cancer Institute board that found “the weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.”

    The four-week trial involved all sorts of experts on the matter, including pathologists, oncologists, and other specialists called in by both Echeverria and Johnson & Johnson. At one point, Echeverria’s lawyers stressed that the jury didn’t need to prove the talc was the only cause of Echeverria’s cancer, only that it was a “substantial factor.”

    The American Cancer Society says research linking women’s use of talc-based products in the genital area to ovarian cancer has been “mixed,” as some studies have reported a slightly increased risk, while others have found no increased risk at all.

    One of Echeverria’s expert showed that talc causes inflammation in human tissues and highlighted that chronic inflammation could cause ovarian cancer. Another expert said 11 talc particles were found in Echeverria’s tissue. Her own treating gynecologic oncologist testified and said she believed talc was likely the cause of Echeverria’s ovarian cancer.

    Echeverria, a 63-year-old California-based, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. She testified she had used J&J’s baby powder for more than 40 years and stressed she would have stopped using it if there had been a warning label.

    Johnson & Johnson recently said in a securities filing that as of July 2 it faced about 4,800 pending claims in U.S. courts over its talc-based products.

    
    

    
    

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28. Jury orders Johnson & Johnson to pay $417M in baby powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | NJ.com

    By Paul Milo

    A jury awarded a California woman $417 million after she developed ovarian cancer she claimed was caused by baby powder manufactured by New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson, CNN reported.

    Eve Echeverria, a 63-year-old Los Angeles woman, said she had been using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for feminine hygiene since she was 11 years old but stopped in 2016 after reading a news story of another woman who used the product and also developed ovarian cancer.

    The company faces hundreds of similar lawsuits in state and federal courts. Eccheveria's was the first of hundreds of cases in California to be decided.

    Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that it will begin the appeals process in the California case.

    "Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease," Carol Goodrich, a representative for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., said in a statement. "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, 'The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.' We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."

    Earlier this year a St. Louis jury awarded another plaintiff what was at the time a record-setting settlement of $110 million in a similar suit.
    

    
    

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29. Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m in baby powder, cancer connection lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Cox Media

    By Natalie Dreier

    A jury in California has decided that Johnson & Johnson will pay $417 million after a woman said that she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s baby power.

    The judgment came after a nearly one-month jury trial, the latest of several cases against the company. There have been about 2,000 claims that women developed illnesses after using Johnson’s & Johnson’s baby powder, USA Today reported.

    The decision is the largest in a series of lawsuits against the company that makes the iconic product. The jury awarded $68 million in compensatory damages and $340 million in punitive damages, The Associated Press reported.

    >> Read more trending news

    The woman at the center of the latest judgment, Eva Echeverria, said that the company knew of potential dangers for women who used talcum-based products for personal hygiene. Echeverria said that Johnson & Johnson did not warn the public about the risks.

    Echeverria said she used the powder up to twice a day for four decades, continuing after her 2007 diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She stopped using it in 2016 when she heard about a woman who said she became ill after using the powder and filed suit against Johnson & Johnson, USA Today reported.

    Her lawyer said that the company had paperwork that dated back to 1964 that showed that officials knew that there was a risk of ovarian cancer if women used talcum powder for feminine hygiene.

    A woman in Virginia was awarded $110.5 million in a similar case earlier this year.

    Three other women had been awarded more than $300 million in their cases in the recent past, USA Today reported.

    Johnson & Johnson officials said the company will appeal the decision as it has done previously, the BBC reported.

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30. Johnson & Johnson Pays Over £300m Compensation For Talcum Powder Cancer Link

    Aug 22, 2017 | LAD Bible

    By Michael Minay

    We've probably all had some put on our bodies at some point to prevent rubbing and chaffing - most likely when we were babies.

    Now, the medical, pharmaceutical and consumer giants, Johnson and Johnson, has been ordered to pay $417m (£324m) after a link between its talcum powder product and ovarian cancer was discovered.

    The fine is the largest sum awarded in a series of verdicts against the company in the US.

    The case was brought forward by Eva Echeverria from Los Angeles, who alleged that Johnson and Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder's potential cancer risks.

    Echeverria says her 60-year use of the product led to her developing ovarian cancer which was diagnosed in 2007.

    The cancer developed as a 'proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder' - as stated in her lawsuit.

    She now hopes that the company will put additional warnings on its products.

    Her attorney, Mark Robinson, said: "Mrs Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson and Johnson for 20 and 30 years.

    "She really didn't want sympathy. She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women."

    The jury's award included $68m (£53m) in compensatory damages and $340m (£265m) in punitive damages after seeing internal documents that, according to Robinson, 'showed the jury that Johnson and Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer'.

    He added: "Johnson and Johnson had many warning bells over a 30-year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product."

    A spokeswoman for the company, Carol Goodrich, said that Johnson and Johnson would appeal the decision but does sympathise with the woman suffering from ovarian cancer as a result of Johnson's baby powder.

    This case is the fifth in a line of cases against the company. A Missouri jury awarded $110m (£86m) to a woman in 2012, while three trials in St Louis last year saw awards of $72m (£56m), $70.1m (£54m) and $55m (£43m).

    However, Paul Burrows, a UK-based solicitor in medical negligence, told LADbible that these sorts of figures would never be awarded in English and Welsh law.

    He said: "The American legal system is very different to that in England and Wales.

    "They have punitive damages - which basically means damages are given to punish the tortfeasor (the person accused of wrongdoing).

    "Also, juries decide the amount, rather than the judge that does it in the United Kingdom - which would help understand the astronomical sums.

    "Nobody would get anything like that in the UK."

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31. Jury Awards Woman $417 Million On Allegation Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Gave Her Cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Benzinga

    By Mark Fritz

    A jury in California ordered Johnson & Johnson JNJ to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed the company’s talcum powder gave her cancer, the latest in a recent string of successful lawsuits.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, said she started using baby powder when she was 11 years old. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago; the diagnosis is terminal, according to lawyers working on the case, the BBC reported.

    The lawsuit alleged that the company was aware of cancer risks associated with talcum powder, but kept that information from the public.Company Plans Appeal

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science," Carol Goodrich, spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc, said in a statement.

    Johnson & Johnson has lost four of five previous cases tried before juries, leading to more than $300 million in penalties. The California case was the biggest one yet.

    Related Link: FDA Panel Says Safety Profile of J&J’s Sirukumab Not Adequate To Support Approval

    The American Cancer Society, in post on its website, said some talcum powder contains cancer-causing asbestos, a carcinogen. But it said studies have thus far been inconclusive.

    “Many studies in women have looked at the possible link between talcum powder and cancer of the ovary,” the group said. “Findings have been mixed, with some studies reporting a slightly increased risk and some reporting no increase.”

    Studies of asbestos-free talcum powder also have been inconclusive, it said.

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32. J&J ordered to pay $417 million in trial over talc cancer risks (UPDATE-2)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Reuters

    By Nate Raymond

    A California jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products like Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.

    The Los Angeles Superior Court jury's verdict in favor of California resident Eva Echeverria was the largest yet in lawsuits alleging J&J failed to adequately warn consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products.

    "We are grateful for the jury's verdict on this matter and that Eva Echeverria was able to have her day in court," Mark Robinson, her lawyer, said in a statement.

    The verdict included $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages. It was a major setback for J&J, which faces 4,800 similar claims nationally and has been hit with over $300 million in verdicts by juries in Missouri.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," J&J said.

    Echeverria's lawsuit was the first out of hundreds of California talc cases to go to trial.

    The 63-year-old claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after decades of using J&J's products. Her lawyers argued J&J encouraged women to use its products despite knowing of studies linking ovarian cancer to genital talc use.

    J&J's lawyers countered that studies and federal agencies have not found that talc products are carcinogenic.

    The trial follows five prior ones in Missouri state court, where many lawsuits are pending.

    J&J lost four of those trials and, along with a talc supplier, has been hit with $307 million in verdicts. Before Monday, the largest verdict was for $110 million.

    The Missouri cases, which have largely been brought by out-of-state plaintiffs, have faced jurisdictional questions after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in June that limited where personal injury lawsuits can be filed.

    In a decision in a case involving Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, the Supreme Court said state courts cannot hear claims against companies that are not based in the state when the alleged injuries did not occur there.

    The ruling prompted a St. Louis judge, at New Jersey-based J&J's urging, to declare a mistrial in the talc case already underway.

    The judge has nonetheless left the door open for the plaintiffs to argue they still have jurisdiction based on a Missouri-based bottler J&J used to package its products.

    The case is Echeverria et al v. Johnson & Johnson, Los Angeles Superior Court, No. BC628228. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Paul Simao)

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33. J&J Loses $417 Million Talc Verdict in First California Trial (UPDATE)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Bloomberg

    By Margaret Cronin Fisk

    Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on the company’s talc, in the first California trial over the product.

    The jury found the parent company and its consumer-products unit liable Monday for failing to warn a woman over the alleged risk of the baby powder. The verdict includes $347 million in punitive damages. J&J, which faces 5,500 claims in U.S. courts, has lost four previous jury verdicts in St. Louis for a total of $300 million.

    The trial in Los Angeles was the first before a state jury outside Missouri, where the company lost four out of five trials over the past 2 years and got hit with verdicts as high as $110 million. J&J is appealing the verdicts and in June succeeded in halting a trial in St. Louis after the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult for out-of-state plaintiffs to join lawsuits in state courts that are deemed favorable to their claims.

    The company will appeal, said spokeswoman Carol Goodrich. “We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,’’ she said. “We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    J&J, the world’s largest health-care company, is accused of ignoring studies linking its baby powder and Shower to Shower talc products to ovarian cancer and failing to warn customers about the risk.

    Mark Robinson, a lawyer for plaintiff Eva Echeverria, said outside the courtroom that J&J should start warning women immediately about the risks of its talcum powder.

    “J&J needs to see they not only have verdicts against them in St. Louis, they now also have them in Los Angeles,” Robinson said. “There’s a problem all over the country with women using talcum powder on daily basis for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.”

    Echeverria started using J&J’s talc powder products when she was 11. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

    New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J has said the plaintiffs’ allegations aren’t supported by scientific evidence, pointing to a New Jersey state court decision last year tossing out two cases set for trial. That judge found evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer was inadequate.

    The $417 million verdict Monday is the third-largest jury award in the U.S. so far in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The largest, for $500 million, was awarded to ZeniMax Media Inc. over its claim that the virtual reality headset maker acquired by Facebook Inc. used stolen code.

    The case is Echeverria v. Johnson & Johnson, BC628228, Los Angeles County Superior Court.

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34. J&J Slammed With $417 Million Verdict in California Talc Cancer Trial

    Aug 21, 2017 | TheStreet

    By Kinsey Grant

    Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) got hit with a $417 million verdict Monday in the first California trial evaluating an alleged link between the company's talcum powder products and ovarian cancer, Law360 reported.

    The California jury set a new standard in the string of suits alleging J&J's talc products caused a woman's terminal cancer, setting a higher verdict amount than Missouri juries did.

    After a four-week trial and two days of deliberation, the Los Angeles jury found Johnson & Johnson failed to warn plaintiff Eva Echeverria of the increased risk of ovarian cancer associated with use of the company's talcum products.

    J&J stock traded slightly up 0.6% to $133.40 mid-afternoon Monday.

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35. J&J Hit with $417M Verdict in 1st Calif. Talc Cancer Trial

    | Law 360

    By Daniel Siegal

    Law360, Los Angeles (August 21, 2017, 1:24 PM EDT) -- The first California jury to evaluate the alleged link between Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products and ovarian cancer on Monday set a new high-water mark compared to several Missouri juries and hit the company with a $417 million verdict for its role in causing a woman’s terminal cancer.
    

    After over two days of deliberations following the four-week trial, the Los Angeles jury returned on Monday with a verdict for plaintiff Eva Echeverria, finding that J&J had failed to warn consumers about the increased risk of ovarian cancer caused by its Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products, and that Echeverria’s terminal ovarian cancer was caused by her use of those products.

    The jury awarded Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages, and slapped J&J and its subsidiary and co-defendant Johnson & Johnson Consumer with $347 million in punitive damages, far-surpassing even the eight and nine-figure verdicts the company has been hit with after similar trials in St. Louis.

    During his closing argument on Wednesday, Echeverria attorney Allen Smith of The Smith Law Firm had told the jury that that the company had refused to place a warning on its products that could have prevented his client’s terminal cancer, despite knowing for decades that talc is dangerous.

    “They’re not ever going to warn, unless y’all do something about it,” he said. “While Johnson & Johnson comes in here and plays these legal games, the collateral damage is thousands of women including Ms. Echeverria.”

    Echeverria filed suit with six other women in Los Angeles County Superior Court in July 2016, alleging that for years she used talcum powder mined by Imerys Talc America Inc. and sold by J&J, and that she developed ovarian cancer in 2007. Echeverria is the first plaintiff to head to trial out of the hundreds in the complex litigation consolidating California claims against the companies.

    The parties hotly contested a host of motions in the weeks before the trial, with Imerys winning summary judgment on the claims against it, and J&J winning the exclusion of several areas of expert testimony proffered by Echeverria’s experts.

    J&J’s defense during the trial focused heavily on calling into doubt how Echeverria’s experts were interpreting the scientific evidence that purported to show genital talc use caused ovarian cancer.

    During his closing argument, J&J attorney Bart Williams of Proskauer Rose LLP had emphasized that Echeverria’s experts had taken studies showing a weak statistical association between talc and ovarian cancer and cherry-picked data in order to try and reach the “more likely than not” threshold required to legally prove talc causes the disease.

    On Monday the jury disagreed, siding with Echeverria.

    Echeverria is represented by Mark P. Robinson Jr., Kevin F. Calcagnie and Scot Wilson of Robinson Calcagnie Inc., Allen Smith of The Smith Law Firm, Ted Meadows and David Dearing of Beasley Allen, and Michelle A. Parfitt of Ashcraft & Gerel LLP.

    J&J is represented by Bart H. Williams and Manuel F. Cachán of Proskauer Rose LLP, Michael C. Zellers of Tucker Ellis LLP, Kimberly A. Dunne of Sidley Austin LLP, and G. Gregg Webb of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.

    Imerys is represented by J. Dominic Campodonico, Nancy Erfle, Michael R. Klatt and Leslie A. Benitez of Gordon & Rees LLP.

     The individual suit is Eva Echeverria et al. v. Johnson & Johnson et al., case number BC628228, and the coordinated proceeding is Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Cases, case number JCCP4872, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

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36. Johnson & Johnson Hit With $417 Million Verdict in Baby Powder Case

    Aug 21, 2017 | Wall Street Journal

    By Sara Randazzo

    A jury here awarded a woman with ovarian cancer $417 million Monday in a case against Johnson & Johnson , JNJ 0.35% the latest hit to the pharmaceutical company in widespread litigation over the alleged harms of its baby powder.

    The verdict comes in the sixth completed trial alleging the talcum powder in J&J’s popular bath product causes ovarian cancer, and that the company failed to warn about the risks. The company won a trial in March but lost four others, leading to jury awards totaling more than $300 million that are now on appeal.

    A J&J spokeswoman said Monday that the company plans to appeal the verdict. Individual jury awards in mass tort litigation are idiosyncratic and are often reduced on appeal. At the same time, the outcome of early trials can give plaintiffs and defendants a better sense of how to value any eventual global settlement.

    J&J said in a recent securities filing that as of July 2 it faced 4,800 pending claims in U.S. courts over its talc products.

    J&J has repeatedly said talc, an ingredient in powder, is safe to use in cosmetic products and that its baby powder is labeled appropriately. The company spokeswoman said Monday that while they sympathize with those affected by ovarian cancer, “we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.” She pointed to an April finding by a National Cancer Institute board that “The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.”

    J&J has latched on to a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting where cases can be filed to try to shed other pending talc cases. A judge declared a mistrial in one such case in St. Louis days after the Supreme Court ruling, and J&J has asked for other verdicts and pending cases to be thrown out.

    That ruling didn’t come into play in the California state court trial, the first to take place outside of St. Louis. The plaintiff, Eva Echeverria, is a 63-year old Californian who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. Jurors heard from Ms. Echeverria via video that she had used talc for feminine hygiene for more than 40 years and would have stopped using it had there been a warning label.

    Mark Robinson, an attorney for Ms. Echeverria, said Monday, “These cases are about fighting for justice for women all over California who are suffering from ovarian cancer because of Johnson & Johnson’s covering up the truth for so many years." 

    During closing arguments, a different attorney for Ms. Echeverria stressed that the jury didn’t need to prove that talc was the sole cause of his client’s cancer, only that it was a “substantial factor,” according to video of the proceedings provided by Courtroom View Network.

    The four-week trial hinged largely on a battle of the experts, with pathologists, oncologists and other specialists called in by both sides.

     American Cancer Society has said research linking women’s use of talcum powder in the genital area to ovarian cancer has been “mixed, with some studies reporting a slight increased risk and some reporting no increase.”

    One plaintiffs’ expert showed that talc causes inflammation in human tissues, and that chronic inflammation can cause ovarian cancer. Another found 11 talc particles on Ms. Echeverria’s tissue. Ms. Echeverria’s own treating gynecologic oncologist testified that she believed talc was more likely than not the cause of her patient’s cancer.

    J&J tried to discredit the opposing side’s witnesses by pointing out that the experts only began linking talc to ovarian cancer after they were hired to assist in the litigation.

    Bart Williams, an attorney for J&J, explained to jurors during closing arguments that finding talc possibly causes the disease isn’t the same as deciding that it probably does, which is the stricter standard required under California law for when a product needs a warning label. “It’s about establishing causation,” he said.

     Lawyers took out 16,000 advertisements warning viewers of the potential risks of talcum powder in the first half of the year, according to an X Ante analysis of Kantar Media CMAG data. That makes it the fifth most-popular target of mass-tort TV ads focused on drugs and medical devices, X Ante said.

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37. Jury awards $417M in lawsuit linking talcum powder to cancer (UPDATE -2)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Associated Press

    By Michael Balsamo

    A Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a record $417 million to a hospitalized woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company's iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.

    The verdict in the lawsuit brought by the California woman, Eva Echeverria, marks the largest sum awarded in a series of talcum powder lawsuit verdicts against Johnson & Johnson in courts around the U.S.

    Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder's potential cancer risks. She used the company's baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.

    Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a "proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder," she said in her lawsuit.

    Echeverria's attorney, Mark Robinson, said his client is undergoing cancer treatment while hospitalized and told him she hoped the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to put additional warnings on its products.

    "Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years," Robinson said.

    "She really didn't want sympathy," he added. "She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women."

    Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal the jury's decision. She says while the company sympathizes with women suffering from ovarian cancer that scientific evidence supports the safety of Johnson's baby powder.

    The verdict came after a St. Louis, Missouri jury in May awarded $110.5 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.

    She had blamed her illness on her use of the company's talcum powder-containing products for more than 40 years.

    Besides that case, three other trials in St. Louis had similar outcomes last year — with juries awarding damages of $72 million, $70.1 million and $55 million, for a combined total of $307.6 million.

    Another St. Louis jury in March rejected the claims of a Tennessee woman with ovarian and uterine cancer who blamed talcum powder for her cancers.

    Two similar cases in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said the plaintiffs' lawyers did not presented reliable evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer.

    More than 1,000 other people have filed similar lawsuits. Some who won their lawsuits won much lower amounts, illustrating how juries have wide latitude in awarding monetary damages.

    Johnson & Johnson is preparing to defend itself and its baby powder at upcoming trials in the U.S., Goodrich said.

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38. LA Jury Awards $417M to User of Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder

    Aug 21, 2017 | Courthouse News Service

    By Matt Reynolds

    A California jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder.

    The verdict marks the first time Johnson & Johnson has faced a jury trial in California over claims that its talc products cause cancer. Jurors delivered the verdict in a Los Angeles court after a three-week trial and over two days of deliberations, according to reports. The award includes $347 million in punitive damages.

    The New Jersey-based company, which is litigating 5,500 claims in the United States over its talc products, says it will appeal the jury’s ruling. It has already suffered four defeats from verdicts in St. Louis totaling $300 million, Bloomberg reports.

    Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said that the science “supports the safety” of the company’s products.

    “We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” Goodrich said in a statement.

    The plaintiff in the case, Eva Echeverria, claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in April 2007. Six other women joined her lawsuit. She said she had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products since the 1950s.

    According to Echeverria’s lawsuit, scientists knew as early as the 1960s that talcum powder is a carcinogen and that using it in the genital area increases the risk of ovarian cancer.

    Using tactics similar to those deployed by the tobacco industry in downplaying the risks of smoking, and the oil and gas industry in denying climate change, Johnson & Johnson vigorously fought against regulations and misled the public about the safety of its products, according to the complaint.

    Echeverria’s lawyer Mark Robinson urged Johnson & Johnson to change its policy and start warning the public about the risks associated with its talc products.

    “J&J needs to see they not only have verdicts against them in St. Louis, they now also have them in Los Angeles,” Robinson said outside the courtroom, according to Bloomberg. “There’s a problem all over the country with women using talcum powder on daily basis for 10, 20, 30, 40 years.”

    Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson presided over the trial which began on July 26, according to court records.

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39. Jury Awards $417M in J&J Talcum Powder Case

    Aug 21, 2017 | The Recorder

    By Amanda Bronstad

    The first California verdict in the talcum powder litigation just came out—and it's massive.

    A jury in Los Angeles awarded $417 million to a California woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to Courtroom View Network through which ALM was monitoring the proceedings. Jurors found 9-3 that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn that its baby powder could cause the deadly disease.

    After more than two days of deliberations, the jury came back with a verdict just minutes before today's solar eclipse hit Los Angeles. Jurors awarded Eva Echeverria $70 million in noneconomic damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    Johnson & Johnson was represented by Bart Williams and Manuel Cachán, both Los Angeles partners at Proskauer Rose, the same lawyers who got the single defense verdict in March in Missouri. Spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement: "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's baby powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, 'The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.' We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's baby powder."

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40. The Latest: Plaintiff wanted to help others in talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | Associated Press

    The Latest on a Los Angeles jury ordering Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in a case alleging talcum powder causes ovarian cancer (all times local):

    __

    12:30 p.m.

    The attorney for a hospitalized woman who won a $417 million judgment in a lawsuit claiming the talc in Johnson & Johnson’s iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer says his client is not looking for sympathy.

    Mark Robinson says Monday that Eva Echeverria wanted through her lawsuit to get a message out to help other women.

    Echeverria said in court documents that she used the baby powder daily from the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

    Robinson says he called Echeverria in the hospital to deliver the news about the jury’s Monday verdict.

    Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said the company will appeal.

    She says the company sympathizes with ovarian cancer patients but insisted science supports the safety of Johnson’s baby powder.

    ____

    11:45 a.m.

    A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in a case to a woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company’s iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.

    Los Angeles County Superior Court spokeswoman Liz Martinez confirmed the verdict Monday.

    California resident Eva Echeverria alleged the company failed to adequately warn consumers about the potential talcum powder cancer risks.

    Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich says in a statement the company will appeal the jury’s decision.
    

    A St. Louis, Missouri jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $110.5 million to a woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 and had used talcum powder.

    The company has lost several other cases.

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41. Johnson & Johnson Hit With Record Talc-Ovarian Cancer Verdict of $417 Million

    Aug 21, 2017 | Fair Warning

    By Myron Levin

    A Los Angeles jury today ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay damages of $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on years of using the company’s baby powder for feminine hygiene.
    

    It was the first California trial in the mushrooming legal battle over links between genital use of talc and ovarian cancer, and the award against J&J was by far the largest so far. Of five previous cases–all tried in Missouri state court in St. Louis–J&J lost four with combined damage awards of about $305 million.

    Capping a four week trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, the jury voted 9-3 to award $70 million in compensatory and $347 million in punitive damages to Eva Echeverria. The jury found J&J and a subsidiary, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Cos., Inc., guilty of negligence for failing to warn consumers that genital use of talc powders could raise the risk of ovarian cancer.

    That no warnings were given was undisputed. To win the case, Echeverria had to establish both general causation–that talc can cause ovarian cancer–and that talc exposure was “a substantial factor” in her contracting the disease.

    In a statement issued after the verdict, J&J spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said that ovarian cancer “is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease. We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” she said. “We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.’’

    Echeverria’s lawsuit had also named J&J’s talc supplier, Imerys Talc America, Inc., but Judge Maren E. Nelson dismissed claims against Imerys prior to trial.

    Altogether, the health care products giant faces about 6,000 ovarian cancer claims, including more than 700 in California, by women who used its baby powder and another talc product, Shower to Shower.

    Echeverria was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. According to evidence in the case, she had used Johnson’s Baby Powder for genital hygiene many thousands of times, starting at age 11 and continuing on a regular basis for more than 40 years–not stopping until 2016, when she saw a TV report about possible links between talc and ovarian cancer.

    She has endured more than 100 rounds of chemotherapy and experimental treatments with painful side effects, and the cancer has spread to other organs. In a videotaped deposition played for jurors, Echeverria wept as she discussed her love for her daughter and grandson and her fear of dying.

    Talc, the softest of minerals, has a multitude of industrial and consumer uses, including as an ingredient in paints, paper, rubber, roofing and ceramic materials. It has been used as a food additive, in chewing gum, as a filler in capsules, pills and cosmetics–and is even injected into the chest cavity in a medical treatment called pleurodesis.

    But, as FairWarning has reported, suspicions about talc and ovarian cancer go back decades. In 1982, the journal Cancer published the first study showing a statistical link between genital talc use and the disease. Since then about two dozen more epidemiological studies have found a small increased risk for ovarian cancer for women who reported using talc for feminine hygiene. Two studies cited by Echeverria’s lawyers estimated that talc powders could be the cause of up to 10 percent of ovarian cancer cases. One study in 1999 concluded: “Balanced against what are primarily aesthetic reasons for using talc in gen hygiene, the risk benefit decision is not complex. Appropriate warnings should be provided to women about the potential risks of regular use of talc in the genital area.”

    This year, about 22,440 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, and about 14,080 will die of the disease. Ovarian cancer strikes about one woman in 70. Studies showing a higher risk with genital talc use have typically put the increased risk at about 30 percent. That would raise the odds of getting the disease to roughly one in 50.

    Plaintiff lawyers and experts said research has shown that talc can pass through the genital tract to the ovaries and cause an inflammatory response that leads to cancer. They cited internal documents that they said showed J&J was long aware of the risk, including a 1975 memo that referred to the ”talc ovary problem.” There was “overwhelming evidence that they needed to warn and that their product was dangerous,” Allen Smith, one of the lawyers, told jurors. He pointed out that Walmart and Dollar Tree recently put warnings on their store brand talc powders that genital use could increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

    But in closing arguments this week, Smith said that J&J’s refusal showed it had placed “corporate image over human life.”

    J&J lawyers countered that no warning was needed because talc is perfectly safe. They said the type of studies implicating talc powder–called retrospective studies– are vulnerable to a bias that can explain the weak statistical association between talc use and cancer. In such studies, two groups–ovarian cancer victims and healthy women–are asked to look back and identify past exposures and habits. Cancer victims are more likely than healthy women to remember their use of talc, the defense argued. In contrast, they said, prospective studies–which health status and lifestyle habits over many years–do not show a statistical link between talc and ovarian cancer. These studies, they said, are the ”gold standard” and more reliable than the studies incriminating talc.

    Ticking off a list of public health and scientific agencies, J&J attorney Bart Williams told jurors in closing arguments last week that no scientific organization had declared genital use of talc to be a proven or probable cause of ovarian cancer. The one that came closest, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in 2006 classified talc as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”– a category that Williams said includes such things as aloe vera and pickled vegetables.

    He also said Echeverria had well-established risk factors for ovarian cancer, including obesity and a family history of cancer.

    Although J&J suffered big defeats in 4 of 5 previous St. Louis cases, those verdicts could be upended, along with at least 2,000 other claims filed there, because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June in an unrelated case involving drug maker Bristol Myers Squibb. The ruling held that plaintiffs must file their cases where they suffered their injury, a decision seen as putting the brakes on the tactic known as forum shopping. The vast majority of claims in St. Louis were filed on behalf of ovarian cancer sufferers from out of state. Plaintiff and J&J lawyers are battling over whether the huge verdicts will remain intact and whether the St. Louis court will retain jurisdiction over the other cases.

    The flood of cases was triggered by a head-scratching verdict in 2013 in a first-of-its-kind talc lawsuit. Ovarian cancer victim Deane Berg filed the case in federal court in her hometown of Sioux Falls, S.D.. The jury found that J&J was liable for failure to warn but Berg, whose cancer was in remission, was awarded zero damages. Still, the liability finding in arch-conservative South Dakota emboldened plaintiff lawyers to begin filing similar lawsuits.

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42. L.A. jury hits Johnson & Johnson with $417-million verdict over cancer link to its talc

    Aug 21, 2017 | San Diego Union-Tribune

    By Richard Winton

    A Los Angeles jury issued a $417-million verdict Monday against Johnson & Johnson, finding the company liable for failing to warn a 63-year-old woman diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer about the risks of using its talcum products.

    The verdict marks the largest award yet in a number of suits claiming that the company’s talc powder causes ovarian cancer. More than 300 lawsuits are pending in California and more than 4,500 claims in the rest of the country, alleging that the healthcare giant ignored studies linking its Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products to cancer.

    The plaintiff, Eva Echeverria, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. A surgeon removed a softball-sized tumor, but Echeverria is now near death and was unable to attend the trial, one of her attorneys said.

    In a video-recorded deposition played for the jury, she testified she used the Johnson’s Baby Powder from age 11 until 2016, when she saw a news story about a woman with ovarian cancer who had also used the product. The talc is one of the company’s best-known products, marketed at one point with the jingle, “A sprinkle a day helps keep the odor away.”

    Echeverria testified that if Johnson & Johnson, which earned a profit of $16.5 billion last year, had put a warning on the product, she would have stopped using it.

    After two days of deliberating, jurors awarded Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages. The jury panel found there was a connection between her ovarian cancer and the baby powder.

    “We are grateful for the jury’s verdict on this matter and that Eva Echeverria was able to have her day in court,” said Mark Robinson, one of her attorneys, who accused Johnson & Johnson of “covering up the truth for so many years.”

    Johnson & Johnson immediately announced it would seek to overturn the verdict.

    “We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,” the company said in a statement.

    During the trial, the company’s lawyers argued that various scientific studies as well as federal agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, had not found that talc products are carcinogenic.
    

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43. J&J ordered to pay $417m in talcum powder lawsuit

    Aug 21, 2017 | Financial Times

    By David Crow

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m to a woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer as a result of using the company’s Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.

    The California jury’s verdict in favour of the patient was the biggest award so far in a string of lawsuits that allege J&J knew the product was risky if not properly used but did too little to warn its customers.

    J&J said it would appeal the verdict and investors appeared unfazed. Shares in the company, the world’s largest healthcare conglomerate, were up 0.66 per cent in afternoon trading.

    The courtroom defeat was part of a thicket of legal action against the group, including not just the talcum powder claims but also allegations that its psychotic medicine, Risperdal, caused men to grow what looked like “female breasts”.

    The company’s legal costs hit $817m at the start of this year, an increase of 480 per cent on the prior year period.

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44. Jury awards $417M in another Johnson & Johnson talc cancer case

    Aug 21, 2017 | USA Today

    By Charisse Jones

    A Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million to a woman suffering from ovarian cancer Monday who alleged that her illness is linked to the talc in Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.

    The judgment, reached after a roughly one-month long trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, includes $347 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson. It was the latest among several verdicts against the consumer-products maker, with about 2,000 women having filed similar cases.

    In the latest verdict, plaintiff Eva Echeverria alleged that Johnson & Johnson was aware of potential dangers from consistently using its talcum-based products for personal hygiene but refused to warn the public.

    “My client's dying,'' attorney Mark Robinson said Monday, adding that she was too ill to attend the trial and is now living with her daughter and grandson. "But she feels good today that maybe women in America and maybe even Johnson & Johnson will get the message.’’

    Robinson said Echeverria used the Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder sometimes twice a day for 41 years, continuing to do so even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. It was only in February, 2016, when she saw a news report about another woman who'd brought a lawsuit after allegedly becoming ill from talcum-based products that Echeverria finally stopped using it.

    Johnson & Johnson said that it will appeal the jury's decision.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,'' Johnson & Johnson Consumer spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.  "We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.''

    But Robinson said that he believes the jury was swayed in part by Johnson & Johnson's own documents, dating back to 1964, that purport to show that the company knew there was a risk of ovarian cancer from using talcum powder for feminine hygiene.

    "My client is now hoping that  Johnson & Johnson will start warning women about the risk of using talcum powder,'' he said.

    A St. Louis jury in May awarded $110.5 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. And three other juries in St. Louis reached similar conclusions, awarding a total of more than $300 million to the plaintiffs.

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45. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million in latest talcum powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | CNN

    On Monday, a jury awarded a California woman $417 million because she developed ovarian cancer and had used Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for decades. The award includes $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old from Los Angeles, said she had been using the powder as a regular part of her feminine hygiene routine since she was 11 years old. She stopped using it in 2016, after she read a news story about another woman who used it and had ovarian cancer.

    Echeverria’s is the first of hundreds of similar cases in California to be decided. Juries elsewhere have returned four other verdicts against Johnson & Johnson, and another case in New Jersey was dismissed. There are thousands of similar cases going through state and federal courts right now.

    Echeverria testified that had there been a warning label on the product, she would have stopped using it.

    The company has no legal obligation to put such a label on its product. Because talcum powder is legally considered a cosmetic, it does not have to undergo a review by the US Food and Drug Administration like a drug would. But it would have to be properly labeled with ingredients and other information, and the product “must be safe for use by consumers under labeled or customary conditions of use,” according to the agency.

    Some other talc-based powders on the market carry labels that mention possible risk of ovarian cancer after frequent application in the female genital area.

    Scientific studies over the years have produced a mix of results. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classifies the genital use of talc-based body powder as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The US National Toxicology Program has not fully reviewed talc as a possible carcinogen, according to the American Cancer Society, which says it isn’t clear whether the products increase a person’s cancer risk.

    Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that it will begin the appeals process in the California case.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Carol Goodrich, a representative for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder. In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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46. Johnson & Johnson loses $417M verdict in talc powder suit

    Aug 22, 2017 | UPI

    By Allen Cone

    A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old women who blames the company's talc powder on her ovarian cancer.

    J&J has lost four smaller jury verdicts in St. Louis for a total of $300 million, including $110 million to a 62-year-old Virginian woman in May, and it faces 5,500 claims in U.S. courts.

    The jLos Angeles Superior Court jury determined world's largest healthcare company failed to warn Eva Echeverria and other woman about the dangers of the powder. Studies had linked its baby powder and Shower to Shower talc products to cancer.

    Echeverria, who started using talc powder product when she was 11, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. A surgeon removed a softball-sized tumor.

    Echeverria said in a video deposition she stopped using the power in 2016 when she saw a news story about a woman with ovarian cancer who had also used the product.

    Echeverria is now near death and was unable to attend the trial, one of her attorneys said.

    Jurors, after two days of deliberations, awarded Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    The company is appealing the verdict as well as the four previous ones," said spokeswoman Carol Goodrich. "We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,'' she said. "We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."

    In June, the company succeeded in halting a trial in St. Louis after the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult for out-of-state plaintiffs to join lawsuits in state courts that support their claims.

    Mark Robinson, a lawyer for plaintiff Eva Echeverria, said J&J needs to start warning women immediately about the risks of its baby powder.

    "J&J needs to see they not only have verdicts against them in St. Louis, they now also have them in Los Angeles," Robinson said. "There's a problem all over the country with women using talcum powder on daily basis for 10, 20, 30, 40 years."

    The company's lawyers argued that various scientific studies as well as federal agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, didn't determine talc products are carcinogenic.

    Talcum powder is made from talc, a mineral mainly containing magnesium, silicon and oxygen. As a powder, it absorbs moisture well and helps cut down on friction.

    Talcum powder was used in the 19th century to soothe skin irritation from medicated plasters, and Johnson's Baby Powder debuted in 1893, according to the company website.

    At one time, the product was advertised with the jingle, "A sprinkle a day helps keep the odor away."

    Monday's verdict is the third-largest jury award in the United States in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ZeniMax Media Inc. was awarded $500 million for its claim that the virtual reality headset maker acquired by Facebook Inc., Oculus, used stolen code.

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47. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417M to cancer patient Eva Echevarria

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Washington Times

    By Laura Kelly

    Johnson and Johnson, a name synonymous with gentle bath products, was assessed $417 million in damages by a Los Angeles jury on Monday after the company was found liable in a case charging that they failed to highlight the dangers of their talc powder and its link to cancer, The Los Angeles Times reported.

    It marks the largest verdict in at least 300 lawsuits in California and over 4,500 claims filed against the company nationwide that their Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products are linked to cancer, the Times reported.

    Talcum powder, popularly used for absorbing moisture and cutting down on friction, is made from the mineral talc, which naturally contains some asbestos, which is known to be linked to cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

    While talcum powders produced since the 1970’s for the commercial market are asbestos free, researchers and scientists are still not entirely certain about the connection between the powder and instances of cancer, the ACS writes on their website, especially for women who may apply the powder to their genital area.

    Research on the matter is mixed, the ACS writes, and that studies are mostly observational, relying on women’s recollection of application over many years.

    The case in Los Angeles was brought forth by 63-year-old Eva Echevarria, who was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer in 2007. She said that she has used Johnson and Johnson baby powder since she was 11 but stopped in 2016 after seeing a news report of possible links to cancer, the LA Times reported.

    
    

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48. Plaintiff awarded $417M in Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Becker's Hospitality Review

    By Kelly Gooch

    A jury in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruled against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit associating ovarian cancer to talcum powder, reports The New York Times.

    Jurors on Monday ordered the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company to pay Eva Echeverria, 63, $417 million in damages related to the lawsuit. Ms. Echeverria, a medical receptionist, has used Johnson's Baby Powder for more than 50 years and developed ovarian cancer in 2007, according to the report. Ms. Echeverria's attorney, Mark Robinson, told NYT his client continued using the powder until hearing news of litigation against Johnson & Johnson linking talc to cancer; she filed suit against the company soon after.

    Johnson & Johnson said in an emailed statement to Becker's Hospital Review the company plans to appeal following the jury's verdict.

    "Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease. We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder," company spokesperson Carol Goodrich said. She added, "We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder."
    

    Ms. Goodrich specifically referenced verbatim language from the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board on "perenial talc exposure," which states, "The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer."

    However, the report notes the cancer center was more inconclusive on its website here, saying, "Studies of women who used talcum powder dusted on the perineum ... have not found clear evidence of an increased risk of ovarian cancer."

    Ms. Echeverria is not alone, as various other women have sued the consumer goods giant claiming its baby powder caused their cancer. So far, only a handful of suits have gone to trial, but most decisions have been in favor of the plaintiffs, according to the report.

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International Traditional Media

49. Huge talcum powder verdict opens floodgates for lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson

    Aug 24, 2017 | RT

    The $417 million California ruling against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), which concluded one of the company’s talc-based powder products caused cancer, has opened a new front in litigation with thousands of lawsuits pending.

    The verdict drastically reversed the corporation’s hopes that the cases were picking up steam only in Missouri, where four decisions against J&J totaled $307 million.

    The pharmaceutical company is facing more battles in US courts with nearly 4,800 outstanding talc lawsuits.

    Earlier this week, a California jury awarded $417 million to a woman who claimed the talcum baby powder being produced by the company for more than 120 years caused her ovarian cancer.

    Eva Echeverria, 63, claimed that she developed ovarian cancer as she used Johnson’s Baby Powder for feminine hygiene since childhood. The plaintiff said that J&J had failed to adequately warn consumers about its talcum powder’s potential cancer risks.

    According to legal experts, the case had suggested a situation of forum-shopping, when litigants are trying to get their suits heard in a particular court that is likely to provide a favorable judgment.

    “This has very much been about forum shopping. The fact that there has been a big verdict in California is definitely interesting,” Howard Erichson, a professor at Fordham School of Law, said, as quoted by Reuters.

    The company still rejects any connection between cancer and its talc-based products, saying that it would appeal the verdict.

    The sum awarded in the California lawsuit is bigger than all the previous talc awards combined. A total of $307 million in judgements was meted out by juries in St. Louis, Missouri, in cases filed by out-of-state residents.

    J&J claims St. Louis courts to be plaintiff-friendly and is attempting to get the cases brought by out-of-state plaintiffs dismissed.

    The company’s shares didn’t immediately react to the Californian ruling, but finished the last session down 1.41 percent.

    The evidence against J&J was compelling, said product liability defense lawyer Nathan Schachtman, referring to the verdict.

    “I think it’s a tough case for the defense,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

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50. Cosmetics warning after €354m payout to woman who said 'talc caused cancer'

    Aug 23, 2017 | Irish Independent

    By Elish O'Regan

    Consumers should always take care when applying cosmetic products, including talcum powder, to any area of the skin, the Irish medicines' watchdog said yesterday.

    The Health Products Regulatory Agency (HPRA) was responding after a US jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m (€354m) to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products such as Johnson's Baby Powder for feminine hygiene.

    The California lawsuit was brought by Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old woman who said she started using baby powder when she was 11 years old. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago; the diagnosis is terminal, according to lawyers working on the case.

    Some studies have found that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40pc higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.

    Other research has shown either no link or a weak link. Most major health groups have declared talc harmless.

    The HPRA in Ireland said the safety of all cosmetic products was tested, but it strongly advised anyone who experienced any undesirable effects relating to a cosmetic product to stop using the product immediately.

    "These effects will normally disappear, but if they persist, or you are concerned, you should report these to your doctor.

    "You should also report the effects to the cosmetic company (whose contact details are on the product packaging) and to the HPRA."

    A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson in Ireland said yesterday: "Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathise with the women and families impacted."

    She said the company intended to appeal the court verdict "because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder".

    In April, the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote: "The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer."

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51. Johnson & Johnson : to pay $417m in cancer lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | Al Jazeera

    A US jury has ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products.

    The case was one of thousands of lawsuits brought nationwide alleging the company failed to warn consumers of the risk of cancer from talc in its products.

    The California jury made the award, which included $347m in punitive damages, to 

    Eva Echeverria on Monday after she filed suit in July of last year, a representative of the Los Angeles Superior Court told the AFP news agency.

    Echeverria, 63, developed the disease after decades of using Johnson & Johnson talc-based powders for feminine hygiene, according to media accounts.

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would lodge an appeal.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's 

    Baby Powder," company spokesperson 

    Carol Goodrich said in a statement.

    She cited the editorial board of the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query, which wrote in April that the "weight of evidence does not support" the existence of a link between ovarian cancer and exposure of the genital region to talc.

    Monday's verdict marks the largest sum awarded in a series of talcum powder lawsuit verdicts against Johnson & Johnson in courts around the United States.

    So far, juries in St. Louis, Missouri have also awarded damages against Johnson & Johnson totalling more than $307m in similar talc cases.

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52. Johnson & Johnson faces $417m payout in latest talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | BBC News

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m (£323.4m) to a woman who says she developed ovarian cancer after using products such as baby powder.

    The California jury's decision marks the largest award yet in a string of lawsuits that claim the firm did not adequately warn about cancer risks from talc-based products.

    A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson defended the products' safety.

    The firm plans to appeal, as it has in previous cases.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science," Carol Goodrich, spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc, said in a statement.

    The evidence around any link between talc use and cancer is inconclusive.

    Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Jersey, faces thousands of claims from women who say they developed cancer due to using the firm's products to address concerns about vaginal odour and moisture.

    Johnson & Johnson has lost four of five previous cases tried before juries in Missouri, which have led to more than $300m in penalties.

    The California lawsuit was brought by Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old woman who said she started using baby powder when she was 11 years old. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago; the diagnosis is terminal, according to lawyers working on the case.

    The lawsuit alleged that the company was aware of cancer risk associated with talcum powder, but concealed that information from the public.

    The verdict included $70m in compensatory damages and $347m in punitive damages.

    Is talc safe?

    There have been concerns for years that using talcum powder, particularly on the genitals, may increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

    But the evidence is not conclusive. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies talc used on the genitals as "possibly carcinogenic" because of the mixed evidence.

    Why is there any debate?

    The mineral talc in its natural form does contain asbestos and does cause cancer, however, asbestos-free talc has been used in baby powder and other cosmetics since the 1970s. But the studies on asbestos-free talc give contradictory results.

    It has been linked to a cancer risk in some studies, but there are concerns that the research may be biased as they often rely on people remembering how much talc they used years ago. Other studies have argued there is no link at all and there is no link between talc in contraceptives such as diaphragms and condoms (which would be close to the ovaries) and cancer.

    Also there does not seem to be a "dose-response" for talc, unlike with known carcinogens like tobacco where the more you smoke, the greater the risk of lung cancer.

    What should women do?

    The charity Ovacome says there is no definitive evidence and that the worst-case scenario is that using talc increases the risk of cancer by a third.

    But it adds: "Ovarian cancer is a rare disease, and increasing a small risk by a third still gives a small risk. So even if talc does increase the risk slightly, very few women who use talc will ever get ovarian cancer."

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53. Should we stop using baby powder? The experts weigh in

    Aug 22, 2017 | AAP

    By Lee Smith

    A CALIFORNIA jury on Monday ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $US417 million ($525 million) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products.

    The case was one of thousands of lawsuits brought nationwide alleging the company failed to warn consumers of the risk of cancer from talc in its products.

    The jury made the award, which included $US347 million (($437 million) dollars in punitive damages, to Eva Echeverria after she filed suit in July of last year, a representative of the Los Angeles Superior Court told AFP.

    Echeverria, 63, developed the disease after decades of using Johnson & Johnson talc-based powders for feminine hygiene, according to media accounts.

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would lodge an appeal.

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” company spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.

    She cited the editorial board of the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query, which wrote in April that the “weight of evidence does not support” the existence of a link between ovarian cancer and exposure of the genital region to talc.

    So far, juries in St. Louis, Missouri have also awarded damages against Johnson & Johnson totalling more than $US307 million dollars in similar talc cases.

    So should we stop using talcum powder on our children?

    –– ADVERTISEMENT ––

    Not necessarily, according to Terry Slevin, the Cancer Council’s Occupational and Environmental Cancer Risk Committee chairperson.

    “If parents are gaining what they believe is benefits for their child and even themselves, then this case in the USA shouldn’t make them feel bad about continuing to use that product,” he tells Kidspot.

    Mr Slevin advises parents to go with their gut instinct.

    “If however they have any concern about using it, well then they can stop using it and there are other ways they can deal with wet nappies and those kinds of problems,” he says.

    Campaign to eliminate ingredients

    The company previously has been targeted by health and consumer groups over possibly harmful ingredients in items including its iconic Johnson’s No More Tears baby shampoo.

    In May 2009, a coalition of groups called the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics began pushing Johnson & Johnson to eliminate questionable ingredients from its baby and adult personal care products.

    After three years of petitions, negative publicity and a boycott threat, the company agreed in 2012 to eliminate the ingredients 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, both considered probable human carcinogens, from all products by 2015.

    At trial, Jackie’s lawyers introduced into evidence a September 1997 internal memo from a Johnson & Johnson medical consultant.

    The memo suggested that “anybody who denies (the) risks” between hygienic talc use and ovarian cancer will be publicly perceived in the same light as those who denied a link between smoking cigarettes and cancer.

    Talc is naturally occurring, mined from the soil and composed of magnesium, silicon, oxygen and hydrogen.

    It’s widely used in cosmetics and personal care products, such as talcum powder, to absorb moisture, prevent caking and improve the product’s feel.

    The jury is still out

    But Mr Slevin was quick to point out that although the jury came to a decision on this particular occasion — the jury was still well and truly out in the medical world in regards to whether talcum powder causes ovarian cancer.

    “Does the court decision therefore mean that everybody should stop wearing talc in Australia because there’s proved connection between the two? In a scientific sense — no it doesn’t mean that,” he says.

    “If people believe there is a benefit to using talc on their baby or themselves then they can do so knowing a connection hasn’t been proven.”

    Mr Slevin says in a perfect world we would know what is the cause of every cancer but this is not certainly not currently the case.

    “We are not clear on the causes of ovarian cancer. Talc around the vagina and the anus have been suspected to contribute to ovarian cancer but the evidence isn’t consistent by any means,” he says.

    “It’s listed as a possible cause in cancer by the International Agency for Cancer Research but that’s a long way from being proof that there is a connection between the two.”

    The Australian Cancer Council’s stance

    The Australian Cancer Council states on its website that the current evidence is inconsistent and insufficient to conclude that the use of talcum powder on the external genitalia increases the risk of cancer, specifically ovarian cancer.

    “Although many studies have looked for a possible link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, their results are inconsistent. In 2006, the International Agency for Research on Cancer looked at all the available evidence and concluded that talcum powder ‘possibly’ causes cancer in people. This is one of their lowest ratings — it means that the evidence is weak and inconsistent, but that we cannot rule out a risk.

    “Several studies have suggested that using talcum powder increases the risk of ovarian cancer by 30 to 60 per cent. However, these studies interviewed women who already had ovarian cancer and asked them to remember whether they used talcum powder a long time ago. Their memories might not have been accurate, and they might have mistakenly thought they used more talc than they did in an effort to explain their cancer.

    “Scientists can avoid these problems by running cohort studies, which follow healthy women over time to see if the talcum powder users are more likely to develop cancer. One such study has been done, and it found no link.

    “There are other reasons to doubt a link between talcum powder and cancer. Studies have generally shown that the risk of ovarian cancer does not go up the more talc women use — you would expect it to do so if the two were truly linked.”

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54. Johnson & Johnson faces $417m payout in latest talc case

    Aug 22, 2017 | BBC News

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417m (£323.4m) to a woman who says she developed ovarian cancer after using products such as baby powder.

    The California jury's decision marks the largest award yet in a string of lawsuits that claim the firm did not adequately warn about cancer risks from talc-based products.

    A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson defended the products' safety.

    The firm plans to appeal, as it has in previous cases.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science," Carol Goodrich, spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc, said in a statement.

    The evidence around any link between talc use and cancer is inconclusive.

    Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Jersey, faces thousands of claims from women who say they developed cancer due to using the firm's products to address concerns about vaginal odour and moisture.

    Johnson & Johnson has lost four of five previous cases tried before juries in Missouri, which have led to more than $300m in penalties.

    The California lawsuit was brought by Eva Echeverria, a 63-year-old woman who said she started using baby powder when she was 11 years old. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago; the diagnosis is terminal, according to lawyers working on the case.

    The lawsuit alleged that the company was aware of cancer risk associated with talcum powder, but concealed that information from the public.

    The verdict included $70m in compensatory damages and $347m in punitive damages.

    Is talc safe?

    There have been concerns for years that using talcum powder, particularly on the genitals, may increase the risk of ovarian cancer.

    But the evidence is not conclusive. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies talc used on the genitals as "possibly carcinogenic" because of the mixed evidence.

    Why is there any debate?

    The mineral talc in its natural form does contain asbestos and does cause cancer, however, asbestos-free talc has been used in baby powder and other cosmetics since the 1970s. But the studies on asbestos-free talc give contradictory results.

    It has been linked to a cancer risk in some studies, but there are concerns that the research may be biased as they often rely on people remembering how much talc they used years ago. Other studies have argued there is no link at all and there is no link between talc in contraceptives such as diaphragms and condoms (which would be close to the ovaries) and cancer.

    Also there does not seem to be a "dose-response" for talc, unlike with known carcinogens like tobacco where the more you smoke, the greater the risk of lung cancer.

    What should women do?

    The charity Ovacome says there is no definitive evidence and that the worst-case scenario is that using talc increases the risk of cancer by a third.

    But it adds: "Ovarian cancer is a rare disease, and increasing a small risk by a third still gives a small risk. So even if talc does increase the risk slightly, very few women who use talc will ever get ovarian cancer."

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55. Woman wins £324m compensation after claiming talc powder caused her terminal ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Telegraph

    A California jury has ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $417million (£324m) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company's talc-based products.

    The case was one of thousands of lawsuits brought nationwide alleging the company failed to warn consumers of the risk of cancer from talc in its products.

    The jury made the award, which included $347m in punitive damages, to Eva Echeverria after she filed suit in July of last year, a representative of the Los Angeles Superior Court told AFP.

    Echeverria, 63, developed the disease after decades of using Johnson & Johnson talc-based powders for feminine hygiene, according to media accounts.

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would lodge an appeal.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," company spokesperson Carol Goodrich said in a statement.

    She cited the editorial board of the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query, which wrote in April that the "weight of evidence does not support" the existence of a link between ovarian cancer and exposure of the genital region to talc.

    So far, juries in St. Louis, Missouri have also awarded damages against Johnson & Johnson totaling more than 307 million dollars in similar talc cases.

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56. Johnson & Johnson pays out £323million over talc baby powder cancer claim

    Aug 22, 2017 | Express

    By Laura Moway

    The verdict was the largest so far in cases claiming the company did not warn its consumers about the cancer risks of its talc-based products.

    The consumer goods company said it plans to appeal against the verdict. 

    The lawsuit in California was brought forward by Eva Echeverria, who started using the baby powder when she was 11-years-old and was diagnosed ten years ago with terminal ovarian cancer at the age of 53. 

    Ms Echeverria claimed she would have stopped using the product earlier if there had been a warning label. 

    The prosecuting case claimed the company knew there was a cancer risk linked with talcum powder, but hid certain information from the public.

    The lawyers for J&J argued that studies, including by federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, have not found that talc products are carcinogenic.

    This lawsuit was the first out of hundreds of cases against Johnson & Johnson in California to go to trial.

    The company has lost four of five cases tried in Missouri and has been forced to pay more than £233m in penalties.

    Spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc, Carol Goodrich, said in a statement: “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    The charity Overcome said there is no complete evidence, saying: “Ovarian Cancer is a rare disease, and increasing a small risk by a third still gives a small risk. So even if talc does increase the risk slightly, very few women who use talc will ever get ovarian cancer.”

    The International Agency for Research on Cancer has said baby powders are “possible carcinogenic to humans” and the American Cancer Society has said it is not clear whether the products do increase the risk of cancer. 

    Last February J&J was found liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy after a 62-year-old woman died of ovarian cancer after she had used their products for more than 35 years.

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57. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay £324,000,000 over talc link to cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Metro News

    By Richard Hartley Parkinson

    Johnson & Johnson have been ordered to pay $417million (£324million) after the company’s iconic baby powder was found to cause ovarian cancer when used for feminine hygiene.

    The case was brought forward by Eva Echeverria from Los Angeles and is the largest sum awarded in a series of verdicts against the company in the US.

    Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder’s potential cancer risks.

    She used the company’s baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.

    Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a ‘proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,’ she said in her lawsuit.

    Echeverria’s attorney, Mark Robinson, said his client is undergoing cancer treatment while hospitalized and told him she hoped the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to put additional warnings on its products.

    ‘Mrs Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,’ Robinson said.

    ‘She really didn’t want sympathy,’ he added. ‘She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.’

    The jury’s award included $68 million in compensatory damages and $340 million in punitive damages, Robinson said. The evidence in the case included internal documents from several decades that ‘showed the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer,’ Robinson said.

    ‘Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product,’ he said.

    Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal the jury’s decision. She says while the company sympathizes with women suffering from ovarian cancer that scientific evidence supports the safety of Johnson’s baby powder.

    The verdict came after a St. Louis, Missouri jury in May awarded $110.5 million (£86million) to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.

    She had blamed her illness on her use of the company’s talcum powder-containing products for more than 40 years.

    Besides that case, three other trials in St. Louis had similar outcomes last year – with juries awarding damages of $72million (£56million), $70.1million (£54million) and $55million (£43million).

    Another St. Louis jury in March rejected the claims of a Tennessee woman with ovarian and uterine cancer who blamed talcum powder for her cancers.

    Two similar cases in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said the plaintiffs’ lawyers did not presented reliable evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer.

    More than 1,000 other people have filed similar lawsuits. Some who won their lawsuits won much lower amounts, illustrating how juries have wide latitude in awarding monetary damages.

    Johnson & Johnson is preparing to defend itself and it

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58. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay £323 million to dying woman who claimed talc caused her ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | The Sun

    By Andrea Downey

    THE makers of Johnson’s baby powder have been ordered to pay $417m (£323m) to a woman who claims she developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products for feminine hygiene.

    A jury in California awarded the sum to Eva Echeverria, which is the largest yet in a series of lawsuits against pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson (J&J).

    Echeverria, 63, alleged J&J failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder’s potential cancer risks.

    She used the company’s baby powder on a daily basis for more than 50 years, beginning in the 1950s until 2016, and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.

    Echeverria, from California, developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder”, she said in her lawsuit.

    Echeverria’s lawyer, Mark Robinson, said Eva is undergoing cancer treatment in hospital and hoped the verdict would lead J&J to put additional warnings on its products.

    He argued J&J encouraged women to use its products despite knowing of studies linking ovarian cancer to genital talc use.

    “Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,” Robinson said.

    “She really didn’t want sympathy.

    “She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”

    The verdict included $68m (£52m) in compensation and $340m (£264m) in punitive damages, according to AP.

    Evidence shown in the case included internal documents from several decades that “showed the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer”, according to Robinson.

    “Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product,” he said.

    Carol Goodrich, a J&J spokeswoman, said in a statement that the company will appeal the jury’s decision.

    She added that the company sympathises with women suffering from ovarian cancer but that scientific evidence suggests Johnson’s baby powder is safe to use.

    The verdict came after a St. Louis, Missouri jury in May awarded $110.5m (£85m) to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.

    She also blamed her illness on her use of J&J’s talc-based products for more than 40 years.

    Three other trials in St. Louis had similar outcomes last year with juries awarding damages of $72m (£56m), $70.1m (£54m) and $55m (42m).

    In March a St. Louis jury rejected the claims of a Tennessee woman with ovarian and uterine cancer who blamed talcum powder for her disease.

    Two similar cases in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge based on a lack of reliable evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer.

    More than 1,000 people have filed similar lawsuits against J&J.

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59. Johnson & Johnson will have to pay £323m in a lawsuit after baby powder was linked to ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Cosmopolitan UK

    By Katie James

    A jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417m (£323m) to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using the company's iconic baby powder for feminine hygiene.

    The Los Angeles jury's decision is the largest sum awarded yet in a number of lawsuits that claim the pharmaceutical firm did not adequately warn consumers about potential cancer risks from its talc-based products.MORE FROM NEWS & POLITICSSinger has the best reaction to woman being gropedWhy Kate Middleton doesn't sign autographsWoman claims to have survived 3 terrorist attacks

    According to court papers, California resident Eva Echeverria used the well-known baby powder on a daily basis from the1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

    Echeverria's lawyer, Mark Robinson, said his client is undergoing cancer treatment while in hospital and told him she hoped the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to put additional warnings on its products.

    "She really didn't want sympathy," Robinson said. "She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women."
    

    The jury's award included $68 million in compensatory damages and $340 million in punitive damages, Robinson confirmed.

    A spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson has defended the products' safety and said the company will appeal the jury's decision.

    "Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathise with the women and families impacted by this disease," Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement. "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."

    The verdict came after a Missouri jury awarded $110.5 million in May to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. Three other trials in the state had similar outcomes last year, with juries awarding damages of more than $300 million.

    Since the medical issue hit the courts, ovarian cancer charities in the UK have responded with advice for women. A factsheet published by Ovacome says there is no definitive link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.

    "We still do not know what really causes ovarian cancer," the charity says. "But it is likely to be a combination of many different inherited and environmental factors, rather than one cause such as talc. It is also important to remember that, out of the millions of women in England and Wales, many of whom use talc, only a very small number will develop ovarian cancer each year. So even if talc does increase the risk slightly, very few women who use talc will ever get ovarian cancer. Also, if someone has ovarian cancer and used talc, it seems unlikely that using talc was the reason they developed the cancer."

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60. Can Baby Powder Cause Ovarian Cancer? Johnson & Johnson Loses Another Lawsuit

    Aug 22, 2017 | International Business Times

    By Pritha Paul

    Johnson & Johnson lost yet another lawsuit Monday to a woman who claimed prolonged use of Johnson's Baby Powder resulted in her getting ovarian cancer.

    The Los Angeles superior court ruled in favor of California resident Eva Echeverria, and ordered the company to pay $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    The alleged cancer risks linked to its talc-based products have embroiled the company in over 4,800 similar claims in the United States, Fortune reported.

    In 2016, Johnson & Johnson lost three lawsuits over claims its talc products caused ovarian cancer in women.

    Echeverria’s lawyers argued that Johnson & Johnson deliberately refrained from putting up a warning label on their products regarding the harmful effects of its talcum powder on ovaries, and instead continued to encourage women to use it for their personal hygiene.

    The results of several studies to determine if talcum powder can cause ovarian cancer have been inconclusive.

    Most of these studies focused on whether the chance of a woman getting ovarian cancer increased if particles of talcum or baby powder traveled through the vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes to the ovary via sanitary napkins, diaphragms, condoms or direct application, American Cancer Society reported.

    While the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is a part of the World Health Organization, has stated that talcum powders containing asbestos (a substance that was earlier used in talcum powders but has been banned since 1970s in the U.S.) is “possibly carcinogenic to humans; the National Toxicology Program, formed by  collaboration of governmental agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration has not fully reviewed talc (with or without asbestos) as a possible carcinogen.

    There is also a good explanation why medical experts have failed to make a decision on whether talcum powder can be linked to ovarian cancer, despite a vast number of studies conducted on the same.

    “Several studies have suggested that using talcum powder increases the risk of ovarian cancer by 30 to 60 per cent. However, these studies interviewed women who already had ovarian cancer and asked them to remember whether they used talcum powder a long time ago. Their memories might not have been accurate, and they might have mistakenly thought they used more talc than they did in an effort to explain their cancer,” states an article on iHeard, a site run by Cancer Council Australia.

    However, a study conducted in May 2016 by National Center for Biotechnology Information, found that 63 percent of the women who participated in the study (2,041 cases with epithelial ovarian cancer and 2,100 age-and-residence-matched controls) had sprayed themselves with talcum powder. They also admitted that the more popular choice when it came to using talcum powder for personal hygiene was Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder.

    In the 1990s, Johnson & Johnson started targeting women belonging to minority groups as users of its baby powder. The company’s marketing slogan at the time — “A sprinkle a day keeps odor away” — revolutionized the uses of baby powder.

    As a result, studies indicate that a higher percentage of African American women (44 percent) use talcum powder for feminine hygiene than either white (30 percent) or Hispanic (29 percent) women, Consumer Safety reported.

    However, Johnson & Johnson has maintained that its products have been scientifically proven to not be carcinogenic in nature.

    "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," the company said after the California jury gave its verdict.

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61. Talcum Powder Linked To Cancer As Johnson & Johnson Fined £324,000,000

    Aug 22, 2017 | UNILAD

    By Julia Banim

    Johnson & Johnson’s soft baby powder is an iconic staple of bathroom cupboards everywhere but the product has now been linked to ovarian cancer when used for feminine hygiene purposes.

    After developing ovarian cancer in 2007, Eva Echeverria, from Los Angeles, has claimed $417 million (£324 million) in damages, the largest sum the company has been ordered to give in a series of very serious verdicts.

    Terminally ill Eva used the talcum powder on a daily basis from the 1950s until 2016. She claimed Johnson & Johnson failed to provide suitable warnings for consumers about potential cancer risks.

    During her lawsuit, Eva explained how she developed ovarian cancer as a ‘proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder’.

    Mrs Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years.

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson spokesperson Carol Goodrich has said the company will be appealing the jury’s decision, arguing how the safety of Johnson’s baby powder is supported by scientific evidence.

    Eva is hoping this verdict will lead to Johnson and Johnson putting additional warnings on products.
    

    
    

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62. J&J to pay $417m in talc cancer case

    Aug 22, 2017 | Pharmaphorum

    By Richard Staines

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $417 million to a woman claiming to have developed ovarian cancer after using its talc-based baby powder products for feminine hygiene.

    The verdict is a blow for J&J, which faces claims from thousands of women who say they developed cancer due to using the firm’s products for vaginal odour and moisture.

    It has lost four out of five previous cases tried before juries in Missouri, leading to more than $300m in penalties.

    This is despite the link between using talc as a feminine hygiene product and cancer not having been proved.

    However the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies talc used on the genitals as “possibly carcinogenic” because of the mixed evidence.

    Nevertheless, J&J has defended the safety of its products following the decision from a jury in California.

    It is the largest award in a string of lawsuits alleging the firm did not warn about cancer risks from talc-based products.

    J&J said it plans to appeal against the case. In its natural form, talc contains asbestos, but all products used in homes in the US have been asbestos-free since the 1970s.

    The link between modern asbestos-free talc and cancer is inconclusive. Studies on animals looking for a link have produced mixed results, and confounding factors make evidence suggesting a link from case-control studies difficult to interpret.

    Eva Echeverria raised the California lawsuit – the 63 year-old woman said she began using baby powder when she was 11.

    She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago, and the diagnosis is terminal, her lawyers said.

    The verdict included $70 million in compensation and $347 million in punitive damages.

    In a statement, J&J cited the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board, which said the ‘weight of evidence does not support association between perineal talc exposure and risk of ovarian cancer’.

    Carol Goodrich, global media relations at J&J Consumer, said: “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathise with the women and families impacted by this disease.”

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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63. Johnson & Johnson hit with $417m in latest talc cancer claim

    Aug 22, 2017 | London Loves Business

    By Gem Sofianos

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay a woman $417m who says she developed ovarian cancer after using its products.

    This is the largest financial sum awarded in a string of lawsuits that allege Johnson & Johnson did not sufficiently warn women about the cancer risks from its talc based products.

    The company said it would appeal the verdict ‘because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,’ they said in a statement.

    A California jury awarded 63-year-old Eva Echeverria $70m in compensatory damages and $347m in punitive damages.

    Echeverria claimed she had developed ovarian cancer after using products such as Johnson’s baby powder, which she claimed she had used since she was 11 years old. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 10 years ago and according to lawyers the diagnosis is terminal.

    The lawsuit alleges that the company was aware of the cancer risks associated with talcum powder but failed to make the information public.

    Carol Goodrich, Global Media Relations at Johnson & Johnson said: “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by this disease.

    “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    She said the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote in April that ‘the weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’

    “We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” she added.

    Johnson & Johnson face thousands of claims from women who say they have developed cancer after using the company’s products.

    In February last year they lost their first damages lawsuit after the family of Jaqueline fox, who died at 62 from ovarian cancer, claimed that she used Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for 35 years prior to being diagnosed.

    Johnson & Johnson were found liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy by jurors in St Louis.

    The have since faced penalties of more than $300m after losing another three cases tried in the same Missouri court and are now understood to be facing thousands more pending cases across the US.

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64. J&J ordered to pay $417m fine in cancer talc case

    Aug 22, 2017 | PharmaTimes

    By Selina McKee

    Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a jury in California to pay $417 million to a woman who claims to have developed ovarian cancer from regular use of its talc-based products.

    The company is reportedly now facing more than 5,000 cases across the US which argue that the healthcare giant failed to warn consumers of the cancer risk posed by its talc-based products, a claim which it strongly denies.

    According to reports last year, an internal memo from September 1997 showed a J&J medical consultant suggesting that "anybody who denies (the) risks" between "hygeinic" talc use and ovarian cancer will be publicly perceived in the same light as those who denied a link between smoking cigarettes and cancer: "denying the obvious in the face of all evidence to the contrary”.

    However, in a statement, J&J noted that the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board recently wrote that “the weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer,” and stressed that it would “continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    The company also said it it will appeal the verdict “because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    According to media reports, J&J has lost four of five previous cases tried in the state of Missouri, costing the firm more than $307 million in penalties.

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65. Concerns over talcum powder causing ovarian cancer

    Aug 22, 2017 | Yahoo Style UK

    By Lauren Sharkey

    A lawsuit in America has given rise to a frightening thought: that talcum powder could be causing hundreds of cases of ovarian cancer.

    Johnson & Johnson – the brand behind one of the most popular talcs in the world – was ordered to pay Eva Echeverria £324 million after evidence proved a link between their baby powder and ovarian cancer.

    Echeverria had used the powder for feminine hygiene every day from the 1950s up until 2016. She was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer in 2007.

    In the lawsuit, the 63-year-old’s cancer was said to be a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder.”

    Currently in hospital undergoing treatment, she said that she hoped the positive verdict would encourage Johnson & Johnson to put warnings on its products.

    “Mrs Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,’ her attorney Mark Robinson said.

    “She really didn’t want sympathy. She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”

    Evidence presented in the trial included internal documents that proved Johnson & Johnson “knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer.”

    “Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product,” Robinson added.

    Echeverria isn’t the first woman to take on the mega brand. Over 1000 other women have filed similar lawsuits.

    In May, one Missouri resident – who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 – was awarded £86 million. She had been using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder for over 40 years.

    A spokeswoman for the company said that they are planning to appeal the decision, noting that scientific evidence proves that their baby powder is safe for all to use.

    “Ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis and we deeply sympathise with the women and families impacted by this disease,” Carol Goodrich told Yahoo Style. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

    “In April, the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query Editorial Board wrote, ‘The weight of evidence does not support an association between perineal talc exposure and an increased risk of ovarian cancer.’ We are preparing for additional trials in the US and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”

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66. $525m payout from baby powder

    Aug 22, 2017 | Daily Telegraph

    A CALIFORNIA jury on Monday ordered drugmaker Johnson & Johnson to pay $US417 million ($525 million) to a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using the company’s talc-based products.

    The case was one of thousands of lawsuits brought nationwide alleging the company failed to warn consumers of the risk of cancer from talc in its products.

    The jury made the award, which included 347 million dollars in punitive damages, to Eva Echeverria after she filed suit in July of last year, a representative of the Los Angeles Superior Court told AFP.

    Echeverria, 63, developed the disease after decades of using Johnson & Johnson talc-based powders for feminine hygiene, according to media accounts.

    In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would lodge an appeal. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” company spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.

    She cited the editorial board of the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query, which wrote in April that the “weight of evidence does not support” the existence of a link between ovarian cancer and exposure of the genital region to talc.

    So far, juries in St. Louis, Missouri have also awarded damages against Johnson & Johnson totalling more than $US307 million dollars in similar talc cases.

    Originally published as $525m payout from baby powder

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67. Johnson & Johnson loses $417M verdict in talc powder suit

    Aug 21, 2017 | UPI

    By Allen Cone

    A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $417 million to a 62-year-old women who blames the company's talc powder on her ovarian cancer.

    J&J has lost four smaller jury verdicts in St. Louis for a total of $300 million, including $110 million to a 62-year-old Virginian woman in May, and it faces 5,500 claims in U.S. courts.

    The jLos Angeles Superior Court jury determined world's largest healthcare company failed to warn Eva Echeverria and other woman about the dangers of the powder. Studies had linked its baby powder and Shower to Shower talc products to cancer.

    Echeverria, who started using talc powder product when she was 11, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. A surgeon removed a softball-sized tumor.

    Echeverria said in a video deposition she stopped using the power in 2016 when she saw a news story about a woman with ovarian cancer who had also used the product.

    Echeverria is now near death and was unable to attend the trial, one of her attorneys said.

    Jurors, after two days of deliberations, awarded Echeverria $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in punitive damages.

    The company is appealing the verdict as well as the four previous ones," said spokeswoman Carol Goodrich. "We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,'' she said. "We are preparing for additional trials in the U.S. and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."

    In June, the company succeeded in halting a trial in St. Louis after the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult for out-of-state plaintiffs to join lawsuits in state courts that support their claims.

    Mark Robinson, a lawyer for plaintiff Eva Echeverria, said J&J needs to start warning women immediately about the risks of its baby powder.

    "J&J needs to see they not only have verdicts against them in St. Louis, they now also have them in Los Angeles," Robinson said. "There's a problem all over the country with women using talcum powder on daily basis for 10, 20, 30, 40 years."

    The company's lawyers argued that various scientific studies as well as federal agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, didn't determine talc products are carcinogenic.

    Talcum powder is made from talc, a mineral mainly containing magnesium, silicon and oxygen. As a powder, it absorbs moisture well and helps cut down on friction.

    Talcum powder was used in the 19th century to soothe skin irritation from medicated plasters, and Johnson's Baby Powder debuted in 1893, according to the company website.

    At one time, the product was advertised with the jingle, "A sprinkle a day helps keep the odor away."

    Monday's verdict is the third-largest jury award in the United States in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ZeniMax Media Inc. was awarded $500 million for its claim that the virtual reality headset maker acquired by Facebook Inc., Oculus, used stolen code
    

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68. J&J hit with $417m bill in talc cancer claim (UPDATE -1)

    Aug 21, 2017 | Sky News

    Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has been ordered to pay a woman $417m (£323m) in the latest cancer compensation case relating to its talc-based products.

    A jury in California awarded the sum to Eva Echeverria, who claimed she developed ovarian cancer after using products - such as Johnson's baby powder.
    

    The consumer goods company said it would appeal the verdict at the Los Angeles Superior Court.

    The sum represented the largest single financial hit it had taken to date from a string of cases it is facing related to the cancer allegations, which it denies.

    Most centre on claims the company failed to warn women about a risk the mineral talc - or talcum as it is also known - could cause ovarian cancer.

    Ms Echeverria was awarded $70m in compensatory damages and $347m in punitive damages.

    J&J's lawyers said the verdict did not follow the evidence as various scientific studies, including federal agencies including the US Food and Drug Administration, have not found that talc products are carcinogenic.

     Its statement read: "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder,"

     It was in February last year that it lost its first damages lawsuit.

    The family of Jaqueline Fox, who died of ovarian cancer aged 62, claimed at a court in St Louis she used Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for more than 35 years before she was diagnosed.

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69. Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay Eva Echeverria $417m over ovarian cancer talc case

    Aug 21, 2017 | International Business Times

    By Brendan Cole

    A jury in California has awarded a woman who claims she developed cancer from using Johnson & Johnson products $417m (£323m) in compensation.

    The award is the latest in expensive lawsuits for the company, which denies claims that its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer that Eva Echeverria had developed.

    Echeverria was awarded $70m (£54m) in compensatory damages and $347m (£269m) in punitive damages.

    Her lawyers accused the New Jersey-based company of encouraging women to use its talc products even though it knew of a link between ovarian cancer diagnoses and deaths to genital talc use.

    However J&J's lawyers said the verdict did not follow the evidence as various scientific studies, including federal agencies including the US Food and Drug Administration, have not found that talc products are carcinogenic.

    In 2011, the company said it would take out "chemicals of concern" from talc-based products by 2015. It was also removing chemicals from its baby shampoo.

    In a statement, it said: "We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder." 

    With thousands of claims pending across the US, it is the latest setback for J&J which has had a number of courts rule against it.

    Earlier in the year, a court in St Louis ruled in favour of the family of Jaqueline Fox who died of ovarian cancer aged 62, saying that J&J was guilty of fraud, negligence and conspiracy. So far the company has been hit with $307m (£238m) in verdicts.

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U.S. Broadcast Media

70. Happening Now

    Aug 24, 2017 | Fox News

    View Clip Here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28989163?token=5e27fff6-45e7-4053-8615-f2a10d337dc9
    

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71. Nightly Business Report

    | PBS

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28969765?token=c3ffb8df-aa9f-4500-bc52-caf3e8d1ac33
    

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72. PBS News Hour

    Aug 22, 2017 | PBS

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954959?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c

    
    

    
    

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73. The Today Show

    Aug 22, 2017 | NBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954201?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c

    
    

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74. Good Morning America

    Aug 22, 2017 | ABC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954259?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c
    

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75. Squawk Box

    Aug 22, 2017 | CNBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954802?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c

    
    

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76. America This Morning

    Aug 22, 2017 | ABC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954930?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c

    
    

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77. Countdown to Closing Bell with Liz Claman

    Aug 21, 2017 | Fox Business News

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28947478?token=d403f381-e955-478f-a7c1-4235a425837a

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78. Closing Bell

    Aug 21, 2017 | CNBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28948701?token=d403f381-e955-478f-a7c1-4235a425837a

    
    

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79. MSNBC Live with Velshi and Ruhle

    Aug 22, 2017 | MSNBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28958879?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c
    

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80. Power Lunch

    Aug 22, 2017 | CNBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28965157?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c
    

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81. On The Story With Erica Hill

    Aug 22, 2017 | HLN

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28965421?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c
    

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International Broadcast Media

82. BBC News

    Aug 22, 2017 | BBC

    https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/28954115?token=ce31143e-90ef-4689-85b4-bb9655d05c5c
    

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