Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has not been given permission by the court to escape from tens of thousands of lawsuits through bankruptcy. The medical company was sued for talcum powder that was allegedly contaminated with asbestos.
The Philadelphia judge’s ruling means J&J will most likely have to defend itself against allegations that contaminated talc in the baby powder causes cancer.
The group tried to prevent this through bankruptcy proceedings. J&J wanted to place the business units that made the products in question into a subsidiary and then file for bankruptcy for it.
The case revolves around more than 40,000 lawsuits. The talcum powder has already led to convictions for the medical company in recent years, with billions of dollars in damages to be paid. J&J is said to have concealed the risk of cancer from using talcum powder.
From research of Reuters in 2018 it turned out that J&J had been aware of the possibly carcinogenic traces of asbestos in the talcum powder for decades. The American company would have paid scientists to publish positive research about the product.
