Two years after ceasing its sale in the United States, Johnson & Johnson announced Thursday that it will stop selling its baby powder to the rest of the world in 2023. In reality, the talc – a hydrated magnesium silicate – will be replaced by cornstarch. powder based on A product “already sold throughout the world”, says the group in a press release.
If the pharmaceutical giant claims that this strategic change is a way of “providing sustainable innovation” to consumers, it is above all the end of a legal scandal that has plagued J&J for several years.
In the United States, the company was condemned for its talc, accused of having caused ovarian cancer due to the presence of asbestos in the dust. A 2018 Reuters investigation indicated that J&J was aware that its talc could sometimes show small amounts of asbestos.
Popular jury convictions then multiplied across the Atlantic with heavy fines at stake.
bankrupt subsidiary
However, independent expert reports and regular checks by the US Food and Drug Administration have never revealed such asbestos contamination.
Despite the cessation of sales, J&J again assured in its press release the safety of its talc, produced in the United States by a subsidiary of the French company Imerys. In the country, sales had fallen considerably. In October, the accounts receivable linked to the talc activity were placed in a subsidiary, which itself declared bankruptcy to interrupt the judicial process.
Sold for 130 years, J&J talc -also known for its anti-Covid vaccine- had become one of the group’s flagship products.
Source: BFM TV
