J&J Says Suspect Baby Powder Is Asbestos-Free
29 Octubre 2019 - 04:34PM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Peter Loftus
Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday its testing didn't find
asbestos in bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder, including the bottle
that U.S. regulators recently said contained the carcinogen.
On Oct. 18, J&J recalled one lot -- or about 33,000 bottles
-- of its talcum powder after a laboratory test authorized by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration found a small amount of asbestos
in a single bottle. J&J said at the time it was recalling the
lot out of an abundance of caution, and would investigate the
matter.
The recall fueled concerns about the powder's safety, and led
major retailers, including CVS Health Corp., to remove some bottles
from store shelves. Asbestos, a mineral fiber once widely used in
building construction, can cause lung damage if inhaled.
But the New Brunswick, N.J., company said Tuesday that 15 new
tests of the bottle tested by the FDA found no asbestos. J&J
also said an additional 48 tests from samples of the recalled lot
also showed no asbestos.
J&J said the tests were conducted by two third-party
laboratories as part of the company's ongoing investigation.
"Rigorous and third-party testing confirms there is no asbestos
in Johnson's Baby Powder," J&J said in a statement. "We stand
by the safety of our product."
J&J took the unusual step of halting trading of its shares
before announcing the test results.
The safety of J&J's baby powder is at the center of a
growing caseload of litigation for the company. About 16,800 people
have filed lawsuits in the U.S. alleging that use of its talcum
powder caused ovarian cancer or a rare cancer, mesothelioma. Some
of the lawsuits allege that the powder contained asbestos.
Last year, a St. Louis jury ordered J&J to pay $4.7 billion
in damages to 22 women and their families who alleged that the
company's talcum powder caused ovarian cancer. J&J is appealing
the verdict.
J&J has said its talcum powder is safe and doesn't cause
cancer, and that numerous tests over the past 40 years didn't show
a presence of asbestos. The company has suggested that external
contamination in testing facilities can introduce asbestos into
samples.
In its Tuesday announcement, J&J said one of the labs it
hired had a portable air conditioner that was contaminated with
asbestos, and initial tests of some of the baby powder samples were
positive for asbestos. But when samples were prepared in a standard
room, J&J said, no asbestos was detected.
The FDA said earlier this month that it stood by the quality of
its testing and results.
Attorneys for plaintiffs in the talcum powder litigation said in
a letter to a federal judge overseeing the lawsuits on Monday that
the FDA used a lab that J&J had previously recommended for
talcum powder testing, and which the company has used before.
"It's not surprising that J&J is attempting to discredit
that report through its own testing," said Leigh O'Dell, attorney
with Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Ala.
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 29, 2019 18:19 ET (22:19 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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