Bisnis.comJAKARTA- Johnson & Johnson (J&J) agreed to pay US$8.9 billion or the equivalent of R133 trillion related to lawsuits against its baby powder products.

This amount is higher than J&J’s original offer of US$2 billion or IDR 29.8 trillion.

As is known, J&J has been sued by tens of thousands of consumers because the company’s baby powder product was claimed to cause cancer.

Reported Reuters The deal follows an appeals court in January that overturned J&J’s controversial bankruptcy maneuvers. The company attempted to abdicate responsibility by transferring its talc business to a subsidiary which then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

J&J subsidiary LTL Management filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday (04/04/2023) for the second time. This was done with a view to carrying out the reorganization plan proposed to the judges by May 14 at the latest.

J&J said in a statement that about 60,000 plaintiffs against its baby powder products approved the proposal.

Previously, J&J has emphasized that its products are safe and do not cause cancer. Lawyers for the company also claimed the lawsuits lacked scientific merit and accused the plaintiffs’ attorneys of advertising for clients in the hope of making large sums of money.

For the current state, the company is still at risk of being sued, since other plaintiffs may go against the company and appeal again.

Then Jason Itkin, as an attorney representing thousands of plaintiffs, released a statement on Tuesday last week that the settlements they reached were bogus and didn’t even pay many victims’ medical bills.

Previously, a Reuters investigation in December 2018 revealed that J&J was aware of tests showing its talc sometimes contained carcinogenic asbestos, but hid this information from regulators and the public.

J&J said baby powder and other powdered products are safe, don’t cause cancer, and don’t contain asbestos.

Later in 2020, the company announced that it would stop selling its baby powder in the United States and Canada due to misinformation about the product.

Then in 2024, the company announced that it would discontinue the product worldwide.

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