Lawyers for Beasley Allen representing clients alleging injures related to talcum powder say they were shocked when a state court judge struck two of their expert witnesses last week in the New Jersey litigation. “These witnesses, Dr. Daniel Cramer, who is from Harvard and is with the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and Dr. Graham Colditz from Washington University in St. Louis, are two of the most qualified medical scientific researchers in the country,” says Jere Beasley, one of the Beasley Allen lawyers in the ongoing litigation.
“In fact, Dr. Colditz was recently recognized as the leading medical scientific researcher in the entire world,” Beasley says. “It’s most significant that both Drs. Cramer and Colditz were listed by the company that mined and sold talc to Johnson & Johnson as qualified medical researchers they would use to determine if there was a link between talc use and ovarian cancer. Each of these medical researchers found there to be a significant cancer risk.
“The New Jersey decision ignores the fact that Johnson & Johnson has admitted in internal documents that its talc powder product carries a cancer risk and that the scientific studies on the link between talc use and ovarian cancer have been against them and that they expected more to come. The supplier of talc to Johnson & Johnson actually puts a cancer warning on the containers of talc delivered to Johnson & Johnson.
“We are confident that the New Jersey state court decision will be reversed on appeal,” Beasley says. “We will also continue with the litigation in other courts around the country. Both federal and state court judges have favorably reviewed our expert testimony on the link between talc use and ovarian cancer. We will definitely appeal the New Jersey decision, which goes against these previous rulings by both federal and state court judges.
“We are supplying copies of some of the internal documents that show without any doubt that Johnson & Johnson knew of the cancer risk to women for decades and failed to warn them of the risk. We have asked Johnson & Johnson to agree for us to furnish copies of the trial transcripts where both Drs. Cramer and Colditz testified and where the Johnson & Johnson internal documents were introduced into evidence and seen by judges and juries in other trials.”
Documents:
P-0037 – talc material data safety sheet
P-0020 – Werner letter
P-10 – Johnson and Johnson ‘major opportunities’ marketing memo
P-0348 – Kelly memo
