J&J settles 69,000 talc lawsuits for $5.5 billion, denying wrongdoing

After a decade of courtroom battles, failed bankruptcy maneuvers, and mounting claims from tens of thousands of women, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle roughly 69,000 lawsuits alleging its talc products caused ovarian cancer. The company, which discontinued its talc-based baby powder in the United States in 2020, frames the resolution not as an admission of wrongdoing but as a pragmatic pivot — a choice to close a costly chapter and return focus to its core purpose. Yet the settlement covers only those who have already come forward, leaving the door open to future cla