Interesting Cases from Abroad: Fox v. Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Case

Abstract

Fox v. Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Case is one of the most famous mass tort cases in relation to healthcare in 2016. In May this year, the St. Louis Court, Missouri delivered its verdict that Johnson & Johnson is liable for wrong-doing in concealing the risk of cancer caused by talcum, a type of mineral, one of its main ingredients in baby powder, the failure to warn of such risk caused a victim’s ovarian cancer and led to her death.  The damages awarded was 72 million USD (2,520 million Baht).  In the past years, the number of cases involving similar claims has risen up to 1,200 cases nationwide. Despite the accusation, the executives insisted on their scientific evidence that talcum is not harmful towards human beings. Johnson & Johnson believes that there is no medical evidence to prove that talcum is the cause of ovarian cancer.

Nowadays, it is not only the Law in the United States of America that emphasises on the healthcare industry, the law in Thailand has also greatly developed over the years especially for healthcare and consumer protection laws for instance, Consumer Protection Law Act, Drug Act, Unfair Contract Term Act etc, in response to the healthcare awareness among Thai citizens. Recently, the class action law was additionally enacted in the Civil Procedural Law in April 2015 in order to assist consumers who are the victims in the same action to prosecute their cases quickly and fairly.  Therefore, it is greatly essential for everyone in the legal and healthcare fields to pay close attention to the development and progress of such interesting cases from abroad.

Keywords: Baby Powder Case, Fox v. Johnson & Johnson, mass tort, ovarian cancer, talcum, class action