Johnson & Johnson threatened with legal action in UK over talcum powder

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Johnson & Johnson has been threatened with legal action in the UK over claims that its talcum powder products caused cancer.

Law firm KP Law said on Wednesday that it had sent a pre-action letter to the US-based healthcare products company ahead of a potential group action lawsuit on behalf of cancer survivors, mainly women, as well as families of those who have died.

J&J has faced long-running litigation in the US over allegedly carcinogenic talcum powder. The law firm said the action it was preparing at the High Court in London would be the first such action against the company in the UK.

Tom Longstaff, partner at KP Law, said the firm had been contacted by 4,000 potential claimants and currently represented about 2,000.

He said in a statement that victims suffered from cancer after using J&J’s talcum powder products. “In some cases, they have died from their cancer, leaving their families devastated,” he said. “All of these innocent individuals deserve justice.”

The majority of potential claimants were women, he said, though he added that some men who suffered from mesothelioma and peritoneal cancer may also have claims.

J&J has repeatedly denied that its talcum-based products contain asbestos or cause cancer.

Erik Haas, worldwide vice-president of litigation at J&J, said that “independent science makes clear that talc is not associated with the risk of ovarian cancer nor mesothelioma”.

He added that a group of US mass tort plaintiffs’ lawyers were “pushing a false narrative” about talcum to the media. “This is why the vast majority of trials in the US have resulted in defence verdicts and/or appellate outcomes,” he said.

The New Jersey-headquartered group has already set aside $12bn to resolve tens of thousands of claims in the US that its talcum powder caused cancer.

The drugmaker has been attempting to use the US bankruptcy courts to resolve the claims by filing for Chapter 11 through a subsidiary company, in a move known as a Texas two-step.

In July this year the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified talcum powder as “probably carcinogenic”. Twenty nine experts had found that “talc exhibits key characteristics of carcinogens in human primary cells and experimental systems”.