Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced on Thursday that it has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit launched by the state of Mississippi over their baby powder product.
The settlement comes as the state's attorney general's office was gearing up for a non-jury trial against Johnson & Johnson scheduled for next month. The lawsuit, in which the state was seeking $6 billion in damages, asserted that Johnson & Johnson failed to disclose the alleged cancer risk of its baby powder to consumers for over five decades.
However, the company countered these claims, stating that federal regulators had not required a cancer warning label on the product packaging. Moreover, they continued to insist that their talc-based goods do not cause cancer.
As of currently, Johnson & Johnson's stock is being traded at a rate of $158.54 on the New York Stock Exchange, which represents an increase of 0.38 percent.
