Johnson & Johnson has set aside $400 million to resolve U.S. state consumer protection actions as part of its broader $8.9 billion effort to settle claims that its Baby Powder and other talc products cause cancer, Reuters reported. J&J subsidiary LTL Management filed a bankruptcy plan in New Jersey late on Monday that details how the company intends to pay different types of cancer victims in a bankruptcy settlement. J&J has said that its talc products are safe and do not cause cancer. It is attempting for a second time to resolve more than 38,000 lawsuits in bankruptcy and prevent new cases from coming forward in the future. LTL's bankruptcy plan would pay $400 million into a separate trust for claims filed by state attorneys general alleging that J&J violated state unfair business practices and consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about the safety of its talc products. Several states had begun consumer protection actions against J&J before LTL's first bankruptcy filing stopped those investigations from moving forward in 2021. New Mexico and Mississippi had already filed lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson before then, and the states of Arizona, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas and Washington had issued civil investigative demands or subpoenas, according to LTL's court documents.
