A Baltimore court has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $1.56 billion to a Maryland woman who claimed her use of the baby powder caused her cancer. This is the largest award ever against J&J to be given to a single plaintiff.
Jurors in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City held J&J liable for not warning Cherie Craft that its baby powder contained asbestos, which has been linked to cancer. 59-year-old Craft was diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma in January 2024.
J&J, which denied the charges, will appeal the verdict. Legal chief Eric Haas called the verdict “egregious and patently unconstitutional.”
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“The verdict is squarely at odds—in result and amount—with the vast majority of other talc cases wherein the company has prevailed and expects the appellate court to reverse the verdict,” Haas added. “These lawsuits are predicated on ‘junk science,’ refuted by decades of studies, that demonstrate Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.
J&J faced a similar verdict earlier this year, with a Los Angeles jury ordering the company to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died from mesothelioma. 88-year-old Mae Moore’s family had sued the company claiming that the rare cancer was caused by asbestos present in J&J’s baby powder.
Last week, a Minnesota jury awarded $65.5 million to a 37-year-old woman who claimed that her use of baby powder caused her to develop cancer in the lining of her lungs. Also, last week, a California jury returned a $40 million verdict in a case brought by two women with ovarian cancer.
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J&J said earlier this year it would take on the lawsuits in court, after its third attempt to resolve talc cases through a bankruptcy procedure. The company is facing more than 67,000 cases in the U.S.
J&J had successfully reduced the awards through appellate courts in some cases. In 2018, after a Missouri jury awarded 12 people diagnosed with ovarian cancer $4.7 billion, J&J’s appeal reduced the figure to $2.1 billion.
In the Baltimore case, the jury awarded $59.8 million in compensatory damages in addition to $1.5 billion in punitive damages to J&J and its subsidiary Pecos River Talc.
“Cherie Craft runs a non-profit where she pours her life into helping others. Her cancer was preventable. She used Johnson’s Baby Powder every day of her life until she was diagnosed with cancer,” Jessica Dean, a partner at Dean Omar Branham Shirley, said in a release.