Shamita Basu

And he details how through the stories of nine products, from a cancer drug known as EPO to a fentanyl patch, the J&J COVID vaccine, and even Tylenol.

Johnson & Johnson has denied many of these allegations.

We started by talking about Johnson & Johnson itself, the company, and its astronomical reach.

I definitely want us to talk more about that in just a bit.

But let's maybe start with Johnson's baby powder.

I think this is probably the story that people feel most familiar with.

But frankly, I don't think very many people continue to follow it or even kind of know where it landed.

What are the major pieces of the story that people should know about baby powder?

Around this time, the FDA started to consider testing requirements for talc-based products like Johnson's baby powder.

But the industry, led by J&J, pushed back hard and eventually put forward their own testing standards that they said they would implement internally.

And the FDA dropped the issue.

A major turning point came in 2009, when a woman with mesothelioma sued a talc mining company associated with Johnson & Johnson.

In response, the company falsely claimed that they had no documentation showing any level of asbestos in their laboratories, mines, or talc.

But in this particular case, the plaintiff knew these documents existed because her father had worked in the mining company's lab.

This case ultimately ended in a nearly $75 million settlement, but it led to subsequent lawsuits against J&J that uncovered more and more of this incriminating evidence.

Even after all of this, Johnson & Johnson stood by its product.

They said the FDA's tests were wrong.

But by 2020, J&J had been ordered to pay out billions of dollars in lost legal battles over claims that its talc-based products caused cancer, including an order by a St.

Louis jury to pay more than $4 billion to 22 women with ovarian cancer.

And that same year, J&J announced that it would stop selling talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada.