Inside J&Js bankruptcy plan to end talc lawsuits

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The battle over J&J's bankruptcy plan to end talc lawsuits

Eron Evans, shown here with one of her daughters, died in 2016 of ovarian cancer at age 41. She had sued J&J alleging talc in its Baby Powder caused her disease.

Johnson & Johnson is attempting to end litigation by tens of thousands of claimants who believe its talc products caused their cancer with a so-called "Texas two-step" bankruptcy.

The maneuver involves offloading its talc liability onto a newly created subsidiary, which then declares Chapter 11. The goal is to use the proceeding to force all plaintiffs into one settlement – without requiring J&J itself to file bankruptcy.

The $350 billion healthcare giant faces lawsuits from more than 61,000 plaintiffs but the figure swells as high as 100,000 when counting claimants who haven't sued, according to Erik Haas, J&J's global vice president of litigation.

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Behind the news

Reuters has detailed the secret planning of Texas two-step maneuvers by J&J and other corporations in a series of investigative reports.

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