Johnson & Johnson Agrees to Pay Up to $5.5 Billion to Settle Talc Lawsuits — Update

By Elias Schisgall

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay up to $5.5 billion to resolve oustanding lawsuits that alleged the company's talc products caused ovarian cancer.

The company said Monday that it had reached an agreement with firms representing plaintiffs in the outstanding talc cases. The agreement is conditioned on the participation of 95% of the roughly 76,000 remaining claims, Johnson & Johnson said.

The company also said that the plaintiffs had acknowledged they wouldn't be able to meet a standard of "specific causation:" that Johnson & Johnson's talc products explicitly caused any individual claimant's ovarian cancer.

Johnson & Johnson said it would pay up to $3 billion in claim payments in 2027 under the agreement, with no further payments due before 2028. It committed $5.5 billion to claim payments in total.

The agreement follows a ruling in federal court asking the plaintiffs to show why their remaining claims should not be dismissed, after the plaintiffs "effectively conceded" that they could not prove specific causation, Johnson & Johnson said.

The ruling put plaintiffs in an "untenable position" and confirmed the company's position that "these claims lack scientific merit and were sustained only by unreliable expert opinions that could not survive rigorous judicial review," J&J Worldwide Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said.

"While we are confident the company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives," Haas said.

If enough claimants agree to the resolution, it would end a yearslong battle for Johnson & Johnson to resolve its talc liabilities. The company tried three times, unsuccessfully, resolve the liabilities through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In March, the company notched a major victory in the litigation, persuading a court to disqualify the personal-injury law firm representing around 5,500 plaintiffs for breaching ethical rules by collaborating with a former J&J lawyer. The firm, Beasley Allen, played a key role in tanking J&J's bankruptcy strategy, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose 1.2%, to $269.00, in after-hours trading Monday.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2026 19:20 ET (23:20 GMT)