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Johnson & Johnson asks Supreme Court to void $2B talcum powder cancer verdict

Mount Equity Group Tokyo Japan > News > Business > Johnson & Johnson asks Supreme Court to void $2B talcum powder cancer verdict

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is asking the United States Supreme Court to review the $2 billion verdict against it in favor of women who said the company’s talc products contain asbestos and can cause ovarian cancer.

The nation’s high court could say as soon as Tuesday whether it will involve itself.

The case features former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is representing the women who sued Johnson & Johnson. Starr investigated former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, which led to Clinton’s impeachment.

After a six-week trial in St. Louis Circuit Court in 2018, a jury awarded $4.7 billion to 22 women who used J&J talc products and developed ovarian cancer.

Circuit Judge Rex Burlison later wrote that evidence presented at the trial showed “particularly reprehensible conduct” on the part of the defendants.

Women have claimed that Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder has talc in it, which can cause ovarian cancer.AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File

Burlison wrote that “defendants knew of the presence of asbestos in products that they knowingly targeted for sale to mothers and babies, knew of the damage their products caused, and misrepresented the safety of these products for decades.”

J&J appealed the jury verdict, and