J&J offers $5.5bn settlement in lawsuits claiming talc link to cancer

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $5.5bn settlement aimed at resolving tens of thousands of US lawsuits alleging that the company’s former talc-based baby powder was linked to ovarian cancer. The company said the agreement, announced on Monday, covers about 69,000 claims in federal and state courts, representing nearly all outstanding talc-related cases in the United States.

J&J continues to reject claims that talc causes cancer, but the litigation has followed the company for years. It ended US sales of talc-based baby powder in 2020 and stopped selling it globally in 2023. Al Jazeera noted that talc, once widely used in baby and cosmetic products, has faced increased scrutiny; in 2024, the World Health Organization classified it as probably carcinogenic to humans.

The legal fight gained national attention in 2016, when a US jury awarded $72m to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer in the first such talc-related case in the country. Although that verdict was later overturned, similar claims expanded and some juries issued awards to plaintiffs. J&J’s litigation chief Erik Haas said the settlement would allow the company to move past the dispute, while plaintiffs’ lawyers described it as a positive outcome after years of litigation.

The reported deal applies to US cases and does not include a major UK product liability action filed in October 2025, involving more than 7,000 potential claimants. That case, now before the UK High Court, includes allegations that J&J knew of cancer risks tied to talc; the company denies those allegations as well.