A Missouri appeals court rejected Johnson & Johnson’s bid to throw out a jury verdict in favor of women who blamed their ovarian cancer on the company’s baby powder and other talc products, but reduced its damages award to $2.12 billion from $4.69 billion.

J&J baby powder

Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, saying demand had fallen in the wake of what the company called “misinformation” about the product’s safety amid a barrage of legal challenges.

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.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will examine asbestos testing for talc powders and cosmetics at a hearing.

Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky told a jury Monday that he did not read all the internal company documents related to potential asbestos contamination in Johnson’s Baby Powder.

U.S. researchers who conducted the largest study yet into whether applying powder to the genitals increases a woman’s risk of ovarian cancer were unable to definitively put to rest the issue that has prompted thousands of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and other companies.

Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky declined to appear at a U.S. congressional hearing on the safety of the company’s Baby Powder and other talc-based cosmetics.

Johnson & Johnson said recent tests showed that Johnson’s Baby Powder was free of asbestos, after FDA investigations reported trace amounts of the material in the product earlier in 2019.

Johnson & Johnson said recent tests showed that Johnson’s Baby Powder was free of asbestos, after FDA investigations reported trace amounts of the material in the product earlier in 2019.

Over the past 50 years, the FDA has relied upon – and often deferred to – industry even as outside experts and consumers repeatedly raised serious health concerns about talc powders and cosmetics, a Reuters investigation found.