A California jury on Monday ordered drug
maker Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million (about Sh43 billion) to
a woman who claimed she developed terminal ovarian cancer after using
the company's talc-based products.
The
case was one of thousands of lawsuits brought nationwide alleging the
company failed to warn consumers of the risk of cancer from talc in its
products.
The jury made the award,
which included $347 million (about Sh36 million) in punitive damages, to
Eva Echeverria after she filed suit in July of last year, a
representative of the Los Angeles Superior Court told AFP.
Echeverria,
63, developed the disease after decades of using Johnson & Johnson
talc-based powders for feminine hygiene, according to media accounts.
In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said it would lodge an appeal.
"We
will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which
supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder," company spokesperson
Carol Goodrich said in a statement.
She
cited the editorial board of the National Cancer Institute's Physician
Data Query, which wrote in April that the "weight of evidence does not
support" the existence of a link between ovarian cancer and exposure of
the genital region to talc.
So far, juries in St. Louis, Missouri
have also awarded damages against Johnson & Johnson totalling more
than $307 million (about Sh32 million) in similar talc cases.
Key CBK Indicative Exchange Rates Used: $1 = Sh103.1
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