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The Journal.

Baby Powder, Bankruptcy and the Texas Two-Step

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, Daily News, News

4.25.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For decades, Johnson & Johnson has faced thousands of lawsuits from customers who claim the company's baby powder gave them cancer. The company denies responsibility. WSJ's Andrew Scurria explains how Johnson & Johnson is resorting to a controversial legal maneuver to try to settle the lawsuits. Further Reading: -Johnson & Johnson Seeks $9 Billion Settlement of Talc Lawsuits -J&J Sharpens the Texas Two-Step Further listening: -Two Days of Reckoning for Opioid Makers -A Pause on the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's Kate.

0:02.0

Our colleague, Juliet Chung, who you've heard on our show as a reporter, is hosting today's

0:07.0

episode.

0:08.0

Here she is.

0:12.0

Johnson and Johnson makes a lot of products American consumers are familiar with, from band-aids

0:17.0

to Taiwan.

0:18.0

And for decades, one of its flagship products was its talcum baby powder.

0:23.0

Johnson needs adds a feeling of softness to the love in your touch.

0:28.0

Johnson's the softest baby powder there is.

0:33.0

But Johnson's baby powder wasn't just for babies. The company also marketed it to women.

0:39.0

Oh, I've got my interview today. There are my eyelashes. You'll feel a lot cooler if you just

0:45.0

use some Johnson's baby powder.

0:47.0

Johnson and Johnson pitched baby powder as a mainstay throughout women's lives.

0:52.0

You know, the first time I ever used this no mama when you were just a baby.

0:59.0

Johnson's baby powder, a feeling you never outgrow from Johnson and Johnson.

1:06.0

But nowadays, Johnson and Johnson's baby powder is associated with something else.

1:12.0

There's this morning concerning Johnson and Johnson, which has been facing mounting lawsuits

1:17.0

from customers who blame their cancer on that company's talcum powder.

1:22.0

The company among one of the most trusted in the United States now ordered to pay millions

1:27.0

of dollars in a case linking baby powder to cancer.

1:30.0

Johnson and Johnson has lost yet another multi-million dollar lawsuit, which claims an ingredient

1:36.0

in its popular baby talcum powder causes cancer.

...

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