Johnson & Johnson offered a $6.5 billion settlement deal to plaintiffs suing the company for its products allegedly causing ovarian cancer, in what would be one of the biggest lawsuit payouts in history.
The New Jersey-based pharma giant is being sued by a whopping 54,000 people over claims of its now-discontinued talcum powder causing the deadly cancer, which has a relative five-year survival rate of just 50 percent.
The product used to be popular as a method to avoid rashes, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer has since classified talc contaminated with asbestos as carcinogenic to humans.
Though they haven’t admitted any fault, Johnson & Johnson has already paid out billions over the talc powder, including $45 million to an Illinois family last month after a mother of six died, the Daily Mail reported.
The current deal being offered to the tens of thousands of plaintiffs would give them nearly $6.5 billion over 25 years, an offer that will be revoked if they decide to go to trial.
At least 75 percent of the people suing the company will have to vote in favor of the deal within the next three months for the payout to begin.
“We firmly believe this plan is in the best interests of claimants and should receive a favorable and immediate confirmation from the bankruptcy court,” Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said during a recent call with investors, according to CNBC.
“As that track record shows, most of bearing claimants have not recovered, nor are they expected to ever recover, anything at trial.”
J&J has the “significant support of the overwhelming majority of the claimants” based on communications with their legal teams, company executives assured investors.
The outlet noted that about 99 percent of the talc-related lawsuits filed against the company and its subsidiaries are about ovarian cancer.
Lora Stahl, 56, of Nebraska, is among those suing Johnson & Johnson after being forced to have a hysterectomy to save her life after cancerous tumors formed in her ovaries.
After being diagnosed with stage two ovarian cancer at 35, her uterus, cervix, and ovaries all had to be removed.
“I was still in my childbearing years, my husband and I were still young,” Stahl told the Daily Mail.
“I was lying there, and it just hit me, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t have kids anymore. We’re done having a family, we don’t have a choice. It’s not my choice anymore.'”
Mesothelioma cancer has also been linked to the powder.
Emory Valadez, a 24-year-old California man, claims he inhaled asbestos from the talcum powder as a child, causing the rare cancer to grow around his heart.
He was awarded $18.8 million by a California state court jury in July 2023, according to Courtroom View Network. Johnson & Johnson claims they have now resolved 95 percent of mesothelioma lawsuits they’ve received to date.
While the amount of money each plaintiff would receive under the proposed deal is unclear, “many” could get “millions,” according to the Daily Mail.
If the deal is accepted, Johnson & Johnson plans to file for the bankruptcy of one of their subsidiaries, LTL Management, which was created to absorb the responsibility from these lawsuits.
“The deal marks the third time J&J has offered a bankruptcy deal in the New Jersey federal court,” the outlet stated. “The two previous ones were thrown out by judges, although they did not involve votes from those suing the company.”
Johnson & Johnson’s stock price rose by three percent after the news of the proposal broke.
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