US judge rules in fa­vor of J&J in con­tro­ver­sial 'Texas two-step' case

John­son & John­son cel­e­brat­ed a win in bank­rupt­cy court on Fri­day, with a US judge rul­ing in fa­vor of its con­tro­ver­sial Chap­ter 11 fil­ing meant to set­tle 38,000 law­suits al­leg­ing its talc-based prod­ucts caused can­cer.

The tri­al stems back to a moun­tain of claims that J&J’s wide­ly-used ba­by pow­der and oth­er talc prod­ucts con­tained as­bestos and caused mesothe­lioma and ovar­i­an can­cer. In an at­tempt to dig it­self out, the phar­ma gi­ant spun the li­a­bil­i­ties in­to a sep­a­rate com­pa­ny called LTL Man­age­ment and filed for bank­rupt­cy back in Oc­to­ber. But a cou­ple of weeks ago, plain­tiffs kicked off a five-day tri­al seek­ing to dis­miss the bank­rupt­cy case as mis­use of the Chap­ter 11 sys­tem.

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