Johnson & Johnson is accused of trying to intimidate researchers with the threat of financial ruin
Three More Plaintiff Scientific Expert Witnesses Alleging Fraud In Their Studies Linking Talc With Cancer
Tuesday, July 18, 2023 - Lawyers representing plaintiffs with ovarian cancer and mesothelioma think that Johnson & Johnson is metaphorically running a football played called a "Hail Mary" when trying to sue independent scientific researchers who claim that talc in and of itself can cause mesothelioma or cancer. A Hail Mary is a football play when the offense throws a long pass into the end zone with no time left on the clock and has little chance of succeeding. Attorneys for the talcum powder maker facing upwards of 40000 talcum powder cancer lawsuits allege that plaintiff expert researchers misled jurors with the scientific studies that concluded that Johnson's Baby Powder was the plaintiffs' only possible exposure to asbestos. The lawsuit also claims that the researchers knew better and lied. Three researchers, two pathologists affiliated with Peninsula Pathology Associates in Virginia, US -- Theresa Emory and John Maddox -- and Richard Kradin, a retired pathologist and pulmonologist from the Harvard University-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, are accused by J & J of falsifying their study linking talc with causing cancer.
According to ChemistryWorld.com. "The article that the three jointly published in 2020 concluded that mesothelioma can develop following exposures to cosmetic talcum powders, but LTL argues that the paper included false statements, including that cosmetic talc was the only known exposure of the 75 study subjects to asbestos. The company asserts that some individuals in that study had admitted to, and even made claims seeking compensation for, contact with other sources of asbestos. The authors knew that or recklessly disregarded substantial evidence to the contrary,' LTL's complaint states." A fourth scientist accused of fraud is Jacqueline Moline, a frequent plaintiff expert witness also. Plaintiff lawyers in previous talcum powder cancer trials that have resulted in billions of dollars of jury awards for plaintiffs with ovarian cancer think LTL's lawsuits signal desperation on the part of the company. "Mark Lanier, an attorney who represented 22 women in a successful 2018 talc lawsuit against J&J, is not surprised by LTL's latest action. 'This is an old tactic of J&J trying to squash scientific opinion through intimidation using its behemoth status,' he tells Chemistry World. 'This was done in the 1970s when scientists tried to warn about J&J's talc containing asbestos,' Lanier continues. 'I think this shows a level of audacity if not desperation."
Other legal experts think Johnson & Johnson is using its weight as a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate to squash smaller, independent researchers from producing studies that would support a plaintiff's talcum powder cancer claims, and that if the company can crush a researcher financially they will. "J&J has much deeper pockets than any academic researcher -- their incomes aren't even in the same stratosphere -- so if it can break them financially, it will,' she warns. 'Doing so will also send a message to other academics that criticizing drug companies will have unpleasant consequences," Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, told CW.
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