Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $40 Million In Latest Baby Powder Cancer Trial

A California jury has awarded $40 million to two women who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder caused their ovarian cancer, marking the latest verdict in the company’s long-running legal battle over its products.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury granted $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson had known for decades about potential risks from its talc products but did not warn consumers. According to Reuters, the verdict was delivered on Friday, 12 December 2025.

Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said the company plans to “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts.” A spokesperson for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.

Decades of Use, Years of Treatment

Court records indicate Ms. Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014 and Ms. Schultz in 2018. Both women, California residents, testified that they used J&J’s baby powder for 40 years after bathing. Their treatments have included major surgeries and numerous rounds of chemotherapy, Reuters reported.

During closing arguments, attorney Andy Birchfield told the jury that Johnson & Johnson had known since the 1960s that its talc products could cause cancer. “Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers,” he said, according to Reuters’ coverage of Courtroom View Network.

Company Denies Evidence of Risk

Johnson & Johnson’s attorney Allison Brown told the jury that the alleged link between talc and ovarian cancer is not supported by major U.S. health authorities. “They don’t have the evidence in this case, and they hope you don’t mind,” she said.

The company maintains that its products are safe, asbestos-free, and do not cause cancer. J&J ceased sales of talc-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020, replacing it with a cornstarch-based formula.

Johnson & Johnson faces claims from over 67,000 plaintiffs alleging cancer diagnoses after using its talc products, Reuters reported. The company previously attempted to resolve the litigation through bankruptcy filings, all of which were rejected by federal courts, most recently in April 2025. The Kent and Schultz cases are the first to reach trial following the dismissal of J&J’s latest Chapter 11 proposal.

Prior talc trials have produced mixed outcomes, with some verdicts reaching as high as $4.69 billion, while others have been reduced on appeal or resulted in outright victories for the company. Most lawsuits involve ovarian cancer claims, though a smaller number relate to mesothelioma. In the past year, the company has also faced multi-million-dollar mesothelioma verdicts, including a Los Angeles ruling exceeding $900 million in October.

According to Reuters, the legal battles over J&J’s talc products are likely to continue for years, with the company appealing the latest verdict and thousands of cases still pending.

(With inputs from Reuters)