A jury in California has ruled against multinational pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson in
the costliest decision to date for the company concerning it's talcum powder products linked
to cancer. J & J must now pay $70 million in compensatory damages and $347 million in
punitive damages after the jury sided with California resident Eva Echeverria who says
she developed ovarian cancer through her use Johnson's baby powder for feminine hygiene.
Echeverria's lawyers say J & J encouraged women to use the product despite knowing studies
show it can lead to ovarian cancer and death. For more let's bring in host of America's
Lawyer Mike Papantonio. He's also author of the book, Law and Vengeance. Mike welcome
to the show, thanks for coming on today. Can you just start by explaining as a well respected
trial lawyer, someone who spent decades, over three decades fighting corporations in court,
explain the significance of this hefty price tag and your reaction to the jury's decision.
This is a monumental problem for Johnson & Johnson. At this point five separate juries have listened
to weeks of testimony and reviewed document after document that coming directly from the
file cabinets of Johnson & Johnson, each one of those juries and this is extremely important,
they all found the same thing. That Johnson & Johnson failed to warn consumers about the
link between talcum powder and the increased risk of ovarian cancer. Apparently 22,000
Americans are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year. The autopsy in the Johnson & Johnson
case though, it shows that women have the presence of talc inside the ovarian tumor.
So there's no guesswork here. They actually do the pathology, they find the talc right
inside the tumor. Still Johnson & Johnson's refused to create
any type of legitimate warning system. They still are not warning women who should have
the choice to make an informed choice about whether they're willing to accept this risk
or not. You don't even need to use this talc baby powder, there's all kinds of alternatives.
And what's so important is, in 1971 Johnson & Johnson had way more than enough information
to begin asking questions about cancer and their talc body powder. 1971 their own scientist
discovered particles of talc embedded in ovarian and cervical tumors. They've known about it
a long time, the juries get furious about the fact that they put these women at risk.
Ovarian cancer is a killer and these folks know it and they kept it on the market anyway.
In 1982 amazing, that showed ... I'm sorry go ahead.
As you explain the most damning aspect of this case is the fact that J & J knew about
the effects of talcum powder on women's health yet marketed it to women anyway. Why would
the so called family company make such a decision? It's all about money. Here's what they do.
They calculate how many people are going to die. How many people are we going to have
to pay for their losses? And they calculate well were making X billion dollars per year,
so they do, it's a mathematical exchange. They figure out how many cases are they going
to win in trial, how many they going to win on appeal, what will the Supreme Court do,
what are their chances of being able to work their way through this with no losses. But
it is, it's absolutely a financial risk benefit analysis that we see time after time with
these companies. It's not just J & J, it's all of these pharmaceutical
companies. Understand when they have the product that kills people, all they have to do is
do a quick number run, find out, do we come out ahead by killing people or do we come
out ahead by pulling the product off the market or making people aware that the powder that
they're using on their body can kill them by way of ovarian cancer. So there's no guesswork
here. It's no surprise that these juries are furious about what they're finding here.
J & J's attorneys were able to argue the Food and Drug Administration has not determined
their talcum products are carcinogenic. Can you talk about the government's responsibility
in this case and others like it involving major corporations?
We see the FDA, the EPA, the SEC and these regulatory agencies all the time bought and
paid for by corporate America. This is another example of it. The FDA, anybody looking just
reviewing the documents that come directly from the file cabinets of J & J, just taking
the time to sit through a jury trial and listen to the testimony that comes out, that's all
they'd have to do to do their job. But they typically don't do their job because they
have other reasons. What we typically see is we see people working with the FDA, day
one and then day three they're working for the very industry that they're supposed to
be regulating. It's simply is a passage of money again.
The idea that regulators are looking out for us is the biggest myth that we've promulgated
in this country. Time and time again we see situations just like this. FDA letting Johnson
& Johnson literally kill people with ovarian cancer and taking no action and you know what?
The worst thing about it is the mainstream media, corporate media let this happen for
so long. Why? Because Johnson & Johnson, they've had this story a long time, this story's been
out there a long time. But corporate media allowed this to happen because of advertising.
We're unfortunately out of time. Of course viewers know if they want to get some those
cases which aren't covered by mainstream media, they can watch your show, America's Lawyer,
every Wednesday night. Mike Papantonio thanks so much for coming on today.