Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle tens of thousands of US lawsuits alleging its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer. The deal, confirmed by plaintiffs' law firms on 27 July 2026, resolves roughly 69,000 cases across federal and state courts, covering 99.75 percent of outstanding talc claims in the country.
The settlement follows a significant legal victory for the company last week, when a federal judge raised doubts about plaintiffs' ability to prove talc specifically caused their cancer. Litigation had resumed in March 2025 after more than three years of failed attempts by Johnson & Johnson to resolve the claims through a subsidiary bankruptcy. The company halted US sales of talc-based baby powder in 2020 and ended global sales in 2023.
The agreement does not cover the United Kingdom, where the largest product liability case in British history, involving more than 7,000 potential claimants, is now before the High Court.
In 2018, Reuters revealed that Johnson & Johnson had known for decades that its talc sometimes contained carcinogenic asbestos. In 2024, the World Health Organization classified talc as "probably carcinogenic to humans".