Health Desk- 24 Oct
2019: Facing off against a plaintiff’s lawyer for the first time about
Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, the company’s Chief Executive Alex Gorsky
earlier this month insisted that the company’s iconic brand was safe.
“We unequivocally
believe that our talc and our baby powder does not contain asbestos,” Gorsky
testified in an Oct. 3 deposition in a case involving a retired Indiana college
professor who alleges his cancer was caused by the Baby Powder he used for
decades. The deposition has not been previously reported.
Gorsky, citing “thousands of tests and studies” to support
his testimony, said: “I’m not aware of our baby powder or talc containing
asbestos.”
That’s harder for him to say now. Last Wednesday, just 13
days after his deposition, the US Food and Drug Administration told the
healthcare giant it had discovered asbestos, a known carcinogen, in a bottle of
Johnson’s Baby Powder.
On Friday, a day after getting the full FDA test results,
J&J recalled 33,000 bottles of Baby Powder in the United States. It marked
the first time the company has recalled Baby Powder for possible asbestos
contamination and the first time US regulators have announced finding asbestos
in the product.
The FDA finding will make it much more difficult for Gorsky
and the company to continue saying that they “believe” the talc powders are
free from asbestos, said Elizabeth Burch, a product liability expert at the
University of Georgia School of Law. She said the test result and recall lend
credibility to what plaintiffs have been arguing in court for months.
J&J stands behind the safety of its talc and said it’s
investigating the FDA test result. The company said it proceeded with the
recall “out of an abundance of caution.”
Courtesy: Reuters
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