- J&J secretly launched ‘Project Plato’ last year to shift liability from about 38,000 pending Baby Powder talc lawsuits to a newly created subsidiary
- The subsidiary company, LTL, was then put into bankruptcy in October in order for J&J to limit its financial exposure to the lawsuits
- Company said it placed LTL into bankruptcy to settle those claims rather than litigating them individually J&J and claims doing so was legitimate
- The claims alleged J&J’s talc-based products contained asbestos and caused mesothelioma and ovarian cancer
- J&J maintains that its consumer talc products are safe and have been confirmed to be asbestos-free
- Talc plaintiff committees argue J&J should not be permitted to use bankruptcy to address the talc litigation and that is deprived claimants of their day in court
- US judge been asked to weigh whether bankruptcy was filed in bad faith
- Johnson then tried to get a U.S. judge to block Reuters from publishing a story based on what it said were confidential company documents
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