Cancer from powder: Johnson & Johnson will have to pay 14500 crore compensation

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear again the orders of the lower courts. The company had requested for reconsideration of the order of compensation.

This compensation is to be given to women who developed cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s powder and related products. The company said that it did not get a chance to properly present its case during the trial in the lower court of Missouri.

The lower court had earlier fixed $400 million in damages. However, it was reduced to half after an appeal in the High Court. Found in Johnson & Johnson’s powder, it is considered fatal to women and children who use it. According to the trial, the women had died of cancer. In the present case, 22 women had sued.

Message: No matter how rich are powerful, they will not survive
Mark Lanier, the lawyer for the victims in this case, described the stand of the Supreme Court as commendable. He said that the court’s decision sends a message that no matter how rich or powerful you are, if you harm people, then the system of the country, which treats everyone as equal before the law, will definitely blame you.

Sales also closed in the US and Canada
Johnson & Johnson kept telling the powder to be safe. But, later, the sale of the powder was also stopped citing the reduced demand in the US and Canada and the bad sentiment prevailing in the market.

There are more than 9000 similar cases against the company
Of the 22 women who filed the suit against the US-based multinational, five are from Missouri and 17 from other states. Johnson & Johnson is facing these lawsuits across the United States. More than 9000 lawsuits have been filed by women claiming their products to cause uterine cancer.

In one such case last year in Virginia, the company had to pay damages of about Rs 73 crore ($ 10 million). Earlier in 2016, the companies had to pay 375 crore rupees ($55 million) in damages due to a similar problem to the cancer patient.