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Report: J&J fined $37.3M in New Jersey talc case

A jury in New Jersey fined Johnson & Johnson $37.3 million in a case in which four people claimed their use of the pharmaceutical giant's talc-containing baby powder caused cancer, according to a report from Law360.

After an almost two-month trial, the jury at the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey in Middlesex County decided that Johnson & Johnson's talc products contained asbestos and that the substance led to the patients' mesothelioma, a fatal cancer.

Representatives for Johnson & Johnson said at the trial that the cancer was unrelated to the product and that the baby powder did not in fact contain asbestos.

Lawyers for the patients said executives at Johnson & Johnson covered up the presence of asbestos in the baby powder and that they did not adequately study its effects.

Johnson & Johnson is facing more than 14,000 such cases alleging the baby powder product caused cases of mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. The highest amount Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay in a single case so far was $417 million, which was later overturned.

The U.S. Department of Justice has also launched a criminal probe into the company's awareness of carcinogens in the baby powder product.

Talc-based litigation poses a long-term social risk for the company, Moody's Investors Service said in a February report.

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