J&J in talks with holdouts to settle $6.5 billion for talc By Reuters

By Dietrich Knauth and Mike Spector

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: ) said on Friday it was negotiating with lawyers for plaintiffs who opposed the company’s proposed settlement of lawsuits alleging that baby powder and other talcum products caused cancer, trying to eliminate retentions to the agreement. .

J&J announced plans to complete a $6.48 billion global deal through the bankruptcy of a subsidiary, after previous efforts were twice rejected by federal courts.

J&J says most plaintiffs support its settlement offer. But he paused the vote count for a short time so he could gather additional votes from the plaintiffs who until recently opposed the deal.

“We have agreed to a short extension of the certification deadline,” Erik Haas, J&J’s global vice president of litigation, said in a statement. “This will give these plaintiffs’ attorneys time to speak with their plaintiffs to now consider supporting the plan.”

An attorney at Beasley Allen, the law firm that led the opposition to J&J’s proposed bankruptcy settlement, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

J&J plans to file a subsidiary into bankruptcy if it gets at least 75 percent of talc applicants to vote for its settlement proposal.

The bankruptcy settlement would end all talc lawsuits alleging J&J products cause ovarian cancer and prevent similar cases from being filed in the future.

J&J is facing lawsuits from more than 62,000 plaintiffs who claim its baby powder and other talcum powder products were contaminated with asbestos and caused ovarian and other cancers. J&J denies the allegations and has said its products are safe, asbestos-free and cancer-free.

The current proposed settlement focuses on ovarian cancer claims, building on the company’s previous settlement of most lawsuits alleging its talc caused mesothelioma, a deadly cancer linked to asbestos exposure.

By using a subsidiary’s bankruptcy to file for bankruptcy, J&J is trying to force all plaintiffs into a single settlement — without requiring J&J to file for bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy judges can enforce blanket settlements that permanently stop all related lawsuits and bar new ones.

Outside of bankruptcy, any settlement J&J reached with some customers would still leave retained or future plaintiffs the right to sue — and leave the company exposed to potential multibillion-dollar verdicts that have encouraged it to pursue a bankruptcy solution in the first place.

J&J has prevailed in many of the ovarian cases tried to date, but the litigation has also resulted in some large verdicts for plaintiffs, including a $2.12 billion award in favor of 22 women who put their ovarian cancer blamed on asbestos in J&J talc.