A former Pfizer minerals business that supplied talc for cosmetic products has filed for bankruptcy to deal with hundreds of personal injury lawsuits, saying that the drug giant is increasingly unwilling to cover those claims, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Barretts Minerals becomes the latest business to file for chapter 11 with a goal of resolving talc liabilities, a group that has also included Johnson & Johnson’s LTL Management, Imerys Talc America, Cyprus Mines and Whittaker Clark & Daniels. As awareness of talc litigation grows, the number of personal injury lawsuits that Barretts faces has grown to roughly 550, from 14 before 2018, David Gordon, chief restructuring officer of Barretts, said in a sworn declaration filed yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Although Barretts no longer sells talc intended for use in cosmetic products, the alleged injuries are primarily due to exposure to asbestos supposedly contained in cosmetic products that used the company’s talc, Gordon said. Barretts, which is headquartered in Dillon, Mont., and has two mines there, was spun off by Pfizer in 1992, when the healthcare business wanted to divest its minerals businesses. Minerals Technologies became an independent company that included Barretts, taking over the specialty minerals businesses.
