Johnson & Johnson is seeking to move a unit to Texas as it prepares for a potential third bankruptcy court filing to resolve more than 50,000 lawsuits alleging tainted talc in its baby powder caused cancer, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed a request last month with the Texas secretary of state’s office to relocate its LTL Management unit to Austin and rename it ahead of a chapter 11 filing in the state, according to the Dec. 19 filing and people familiar with the plan. J&J has put the LTL subsidiary into chapter 11 twice before in hopes of imposing a $9 billion settlement on former users of the product. Both cases, filed in J&J’s home state of New Jersey, were thrown out. The decade-long litigation, plus the prospect of potential future cancer suits, is limiting its stock price, analysts have said. J&J, based in New Brunswick, wouldn’t say where the bankruptcy case would be filed or comment on the timing, but has said it is working hard toward a resolution of its current and future talc cases. “Consistent with the plan we outlined last year following the New Jersey bankruptcy court’s dismissal of the case,” the company “continues to pursue several paths to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the talc litigation,” Erik Haas, its in-house lawyer overseeing the cases, said in a statement. He said that includes a new bankruptcy filing, as “strongly recommended” by the court.
