J&J agrees to settle talcum powder claims for $8.9 billion

Good morning! Jason Mast right here, filling in for Ed on this effective Passover eve. Each time I sub in on this article, I worry I’ll offend Ed and his readers’ fine-crafted espresso sensibilities with my plebeian selections. At present, we’re sipping a darkish roast from a sure nationwide chain that has determined to supply patrons limitless espresso for, like, $11 a month. The model will go unnamed for now, as journalism prices cash and we right here at STAT don’t simply give away promoting totally free. But when they — or every other espresso chain, we don’t discriminate — want to attain a faithful viewers of biopharma readers on the three or so days a 12 months I guest-write this article, nicely my electronic mail’s proper on the backside after the information. Which, talking of …

Johnson & Johnson stated it agreed to settle the claims from tens of hundreds of people that say the corporate’s talcum powder merchandise contributed to their or a member of the family’s cancers, the New York Occasions reports. The proposed $8.9 billion settlement might finish a years-long authorized battle that put J&J in nationwide headlines, each due to the plaintiff’s claims and due to authorized maneuvers that critics said had been designed to attenuate the corporate’s legal responsibility. Some legal professionals for the plaintiffs greeted the settlement as a “vital victory,” whereas others opposed it. Traders, nonetheless, had been glad, bidding up the corporate’s inventory 3.5%.