Big Pharma’s Latest Bankruptcy Scam

Profits over Justice

After a federal appeals court last week rejected an elaborate ploy by Johnson and Johnson to avoid billions in potential liability over its baby powder products, the company is taking its case to the Supreme Court.  It is the latest in a series of highly controversial bankruptcy schemes deployed by drug companies to do an end run around massive civil litigation for personal injuries caused by their defective products. The hotly debated strategies also allow the companies pay only a small fraction of the pending claims, and in some instances permits their wealthy owners to retain billions in profits from the very products that caused the injuries.  

J&J wants to cap its liability from about 40,000 lawsuits that charge its baby powder products contained asbestos residue that led to ovarian cancers and mesothelioma.  A Missouri jury in 2018 awarded $4.7 billion to 22 female plaintiffs who blamed their ovarian cancers on years of using talcum powder. Internal memos produced during the tria…