Judge allows testimony of talc’s link to cancer
A US federal judge has ruled to allow testimony from experts supporting the link, in a victory for thousands of women who sued Johnson & Johnson over allegations that the company’s baby powder and other talc products caused ovarian cancer.
The decision by an outside judge serving as a special expert in the long-running case, which involves more than 67,500 cases consolidated in federal court in New Jersey, will allow the cases to move toward a first hearing in federal court, potentially later this year.
Product liability Like the lawsuits J&J faced regarding its talc products, experts are relied upon to determine whether the product may have caused the alleged harm.
Decisions regarding expert testimony can sometimes be an important turning point in these cases.
U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp in Trenton, New Jersey, who is overseeing the case, assigned retired U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson to consider what expert testimony would be allowed at trial based on whether it met scientific standards set out in federal law.
J&J, which has been fighting claims about its talc products in both federal and state court for years, has said its products are safe and do not cause cancer.
J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020 and switched to a cornstarch product.
Wolfson examines the scientific evidence in the case for the second time; because he oversaw the so-called multidistrict litigation from its inception in 2016 until his retirement in 2023, when the case was transferred to Shipp.
He sided with the plaintiffs in 2020, saying their experts would be allowed to testify that the products’ link to cancer could be due to contamination of talc with asbestos and heavy metals.
J&J said its products do not contain asbestos.
Shipp said he wants scientific evidence reevaluated in 2024 because of two factors: recent changes to federal rules governing expert testimony that strengthen courts’ role in reviewing experts’ methodology and conclusions before allowing them to testify, and the emergence of new scientific evidence.
J&J had attempted to resolve the case through bankruptcy; This tactic has been rejected by federal courts three times, most recently in April 2025.
Bankruptcies had put most talc product cases on hold for years.
As part of its strategy to fight the allegations, J&J also sued the scientists whose research and testimony were used to support the plaintiffs’ cases, accusing them of falsifying their results by possibly implicating people who were exposed to asbestos through other means.
One of these cases is still ongoing, and the other has been dismissed.
Before its bankruptcy attempts, J&J had a mixed record in state courts; Some cases had already gone to trial, with verdicts as high as US$4.69 billion ($6.97 billion) awarded to 22 women who said baby powder caused ovarian cancer.
The company won the verdict in this case, with some appeals reduced and some cases won outright.
Separately, J&J has also faced lawsuits alleging that its talc products cause a rare and fatal cancer called mesothelioma. The company resolved some of these claims, but did not reach a nationwide settlement; Therefore, in recent months, many cases related to mesothelioma have begun to be heard in state courts.
J&J has been hit with several landmark verdicts in mesothelioma cases, including a verdict in Baltimore in December that awarded more than US$1.5 billion ($2.2 billion).
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