Johnson & Johnson to cease making talc-based child powder globally

Johnson & Johnson is to cease promoting and making talc-based child powder globally, two years after it ended gross sales within the US and Canada.

The healthcare agency has confronted tens of hundreds of lawsuits from shoppers who allege its talc merchandise, together with the immediately recognisable model of Johnson’s child powder, brought on them to develop most cancers.

“As a part of a worldwide portfolio evaluation, now we have made the industrial resolution to transition to an all cornstarch-based child powder portfolio,” the corporate stated in a press release. “On account of this transition, talc-based Johnson’s child powder might be discontinued globally in 2023.”

In 2020, the corporate introduced it was to cease promoting the talc-based model in North America due to a fall in demand after what it stated was “misinformation” concerning the product’s security and authorized challenges.

This adopted J&J voluntarily recalling a batch of its child powder after US Meals and Drug Administration regulators discovered hint quantities of asbestos within the product. The corporate stated 33,000 bottles of talcum powder could be recalled “out of an abundance of warning”.

J&J, which stated that it already bought the cornstarch-based model of the child powder around the globe, stated it continued to keep up that the talc-based child powder didn’t trigger most cancers.

“Our place on the security of our beauty talc stays unchanged,” the corporate stated. “We stand firmly behind many years of unbiased scientific evaluation by medical consultants around the globe that verify that talc-based Johnson’s child powder is protected, doesn’t include asbestos, and doesn’t trigger most cancers.”

J&J, which is dealing with about 38,000 lawsuits, stated the choice to cease promoting the product was about “optimising” its product portfolio.

“We constantly consider and optimise our portfolio to greatest place the enterprise for long-term progress,” the corporate stated. “This transition will assist simplify our product choices, ship sustainable innovation, and meet the wants of our shoppers, prospects and evolving world tendencies.”

In April, a shareholder proposal calling for an finish to world gross sales of the talc child powder failed.

In October, J&J created a subsidiary, LTL Administration, assigned the talc claims to it and put the corporate into chapter 11, pausing the authorized actions.

Earlier than the chapter submitting, the corporate confronted prices from $3.5bn (£2.9bn) in verdicts and settlements, together with one wherein 22 girls had been awarded a judgment of greater than $2bn.

Johnson’s child powder has been bought since 1894 and have become an emblem of the corporate’s family-friendly picture.