Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $40 Million To 2 Women In Baby Powder Cancer Trial

Last Updated:December 13, 2025, 18:57 IST

US court awarded $40 million to Monica Kent and Deborah Schultz, who claimed Johnson & Johnson's baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. The company plans to appeal the verdict.

The jury in Los Angeles Superior Court awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers. (Image for representation)

A California jury has awarded $40 million to two women who claimed Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder was responsible for their ovarian cancer.

According to Reuters, the jury in Los Angeles Superior Court awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.

The court records stated Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014 and Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. They said they used J&J’s baby powder after bathing for 40 years. They further said their treatments involved major surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy.

Reuters quoted the closing arguments in Courtroom View Network stating Andy Birchfield, an attorney for the women, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew as far back as the 1960s that its product 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.

Following this, Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement the company plans to “immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts".

Reuters quoted Allison Brown, an attorney for Johnson & Johnson, stating the only people to tell Kent and Schultz that their cancers were caused by talc were their lawyers, as the alleged connection isn’t backed by any major U.S. health authority and there is no study that shows talc can migrate from the outside of the body to the reproductive organs.

“They don’t have the evidence in this case, and they hope you don’t mind," Brown told the jury.

The company is facing over 67,000 plaintiffs who said they said they were diagnosed with cancer after using its baby powder and other talc products, according to court filings.

It stated that its products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. They has stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the US in 2020 and switched to a cornstarch product.

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