Johnson
& Johnson has been ordered to pay £51 million damages to the family of a
woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company's
baby power.
In
a verdict announced late Monday night, jurors in the circuit court of St.
Louis, US, awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox £7 million of actual damages
and £44 million of punitive damages, according to the family's lawyers and
court records.
The
verdict is the first by a U.S. jury to award damages over the claims, the
lawyers said.
Johnson
& Johnson faces several hundred lawsuits claiming that it, in an effort to
boost sales, failed for decades to warn consumers that its talc-based products
could cause cancer.
Fox,
who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to
Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before being diagnosed three
years ago with ovarian cancer. She died in October at age 62.
Jere
Beasley, a lawyer for Fox's family, said Johnson & Johnson "knew as
far back as the 1980s of the risk," and yet resorted to "lying to the
public, lying to the regulatory agencies."
In
October 2013, a federal jury in Sioux Falls, South Dakota found that plaintiff
Deane Berg's use of Johnson & Johnson's body powder products was a factor
in her developing ovarian cancer. Nevertheless, it awarded no damages, court
records show.
Valeant
Pharmaceuticals International Inc now owns the Shower to Shower brand but was
not a defendant in the Fox case.
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