J&J’s research into the safety of its baby powder includes a study in which prisoners, mostly black men, were injected with asbestos to compare the cancer-causing compound with talc, according to unsealed court documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
While human experiments involving inmates at the Holmesburg prison outside Philadelphia have previously been disclosed in books and newspaper articles, J&J was involved in studies comparing talc to asbestos until Bloomberg report on Monday. Court documents were made public in two trials last year over claims that Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused cancer. Johnson & Johnson regrets its involvement with University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Albert Kligman, who tested the baby powder. But Bloomberg said the company also noted that the tests did not violate research standards at the time.
“We deeply regret the conditions under which these studies were conducted, and they in no way reflect the values or practices we employ today,” company spokesman Kim Montanino said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. “As the world’s largest healthcare company, our transparent, diligent approach to bioethics is at the heart of our commitment to our customers and society.”
Asbestos is often found where talc is mined. Scientists linked asbestos to cancer in the 1950s. J&J did not dispute that it hired Kligman to test baby powder in the 1960s. Unsealed court documents state that the 1971 asbestos test involved recruiting 10 prisoners who received injections of two types of asbestos, tremolite and chrysotile, and talc in their lower backs.
The news of J&J’s involvement in the Holmesburg test comes as the company continues to battle a lawsuit alleging that talc-based baby powder contains asbestos. The pharma giant has consistently said its baby powder never contained asbestos. Still, Johnson & Johnson lost a number of lawsuits alleging the product was harmful, and the company stopped selling it in the U.S. and Canada in 2020.
Johnson & Johnson is currently facing about 40,000 lawsuits related to its talc powder. Last year, the company used a Texas law to consolidate talc lawsuits into a separate cosmetics subsidiary.Last October, this unit file for bankruptcy, a move that limits litigants’ compensation for alleged injuries they suffered from baby powder.A federal judge ruled Johnson & Johnson last month can continue Adopt this bankruptcy strategy.
Johnson & Johnson is also restructuring its business, separating its pharmaceuticals and medical devices business from its consumer health business business, will take on a new name. When the move was announced in November, Morningstar analyst Damien Conover said in a research note that the split would remove the combined company’s deep pockets and, in turn, reduce the financial risk of consumer product lawsuits such as baby powder lawsuits.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks the lawsuit, told Bloomberg that J&J’s involvement with Kligman could have implications for litigants who opt out of bankruptcy. Although jurors heard the results of the Krigman asbestos study, they were not told that the test was done on prisoners, or that most tests were done on black people. But that could change in future lawsuits and could be used by plaintiffs for punitive damages statements, Tobias said.
Kriegman died in 2010 but has never admitted any wrongdoing. In 1998, he told the Baltimore Sun, he used paid prisoners as research subjects in the 1950s and 1960s, which met the standards of scientific research in the United States at the time.
Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
