J&J Must Pay $29 Million Over Woman’s Talc-Linked Cancer (3)

Johnson & Johnson must pay about $29 million to a dying California woman who blamed asbestos-tainted talc for causing her cancer, the company’s latest loss in nationwide litigation over its iconic baby powder.

Jurors in state court in Oakland, California, March 13 held J&J responsible for Teresa Leavitt’s mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos exposure. The panel, which included a lawyer and a state-court judge, also found the world’s largest maker of health-care products didn’t warn Leavitt its baby powder was tainted with the carcinogen.

J&J stock dropped as much as 2 percent in after-hours trading to $136.40 after the ...