Johnson & Johnson baby powder

A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary came under attack in court on February 14 for attempting to use the bankruptcy process to resolve tens of thousands of claims that J&J’s baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer.

Johnson & Johnson and Costco Wholesale Corp. reached a tentative agreement to settle lawsuits over the presence of a cancer-causing substance in several recalled J&J sunscreen products.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on Oct. 19 turned away a religious challenge to a requirement that healthcare workers in Maine be vaccinated against Covid-19, the latest such bid rejected by the nation’s top judicial body.

A U.S. judge in New York on Sept. 14 temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a requirement that healthcare workers receive Covid-19 vaccines against the wishes of employees with religious objections.

A U.S. judge granted a Reuters request to unseal Merck & Co. documents produced in lawsuits related to the company’s anti-baldness treatment Propecia, finding that the public’s right to access outweighed the drug maker’s arguments for keeping the information secret.

Bayer

German drugs and pesticides group Bayer will pay around $1.6 billion to settle the majority of U.S. claims involving the Essure birth-control device.

Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a New Jersey state jury to pay punitive damages of $750 million to four plaintiffs who allege that the company’s Baby Powder caused their cancer, a ruling that will be reduced to around $185 million because of state laws, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs and J&J.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP reached a tentative agreement with some plaintiffs to resolve litigation over the company’s alleged role in fueling the U.S. opioid crisis and plans to tussle with states opposing the settlement offer in bankruptcy proceedings, people familiar with the matter said.