J&J to Pay More Than $100 Million to End Over 1,000 Talc Suits

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $100 million to resolve over 1,000 lawsuits blaming its baby powder for causing cancer, in the first set of major settlements in four years of litigation, people with knowledge of the pacts said.

The accords, struck with several law firms, signal that the world’s largest maker of health care products is trying to get ahead of the burgeoning litigation, with some 20,000 lawsuits still pending, according to securities filings. They mark the first time Johnson & Johnson has settled the bulk of a plaintiffs lawyer’s cases in the baby powder ...