US Judge Temporarily Blocks New Mexico & Mississippi Lawsuits Regarding J&J Talc: Report - Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has temporarily paused New Mexico and Mississippi from accusing Johnson & Johnson JNJ of misleading consumers about the safety of its talc products.
The judge said an appellate court is reviewing J&J's bankruptcy of subsidiary LTL Management to resolve claims regarding its talc products causing cancer, Reuters reported.
JNJ created LTL in October 2021 to assign its talc liabilities to the unit, and later it announced bankruptcy for the same.
In August, Johnson & Johnson said it plans to stop selling its legacy talc-based baby-powder products globally in 2023.
The judge said he would revisit allowing the states' lawsuits to proceed at a hearing in December.
The restructuring strategy, dubbed "Texas two-step," paused about 38,000 individual lawsuits the pharma giant was facing alleging that its talc-based powder contains cancer-causing agents, the report added.
New Mexico and Mississippi had argued that the February order only blocked lawsuits by private plaintiffs and that Kaplan does not have the authority to block states.
In April, the U.S. bankruptcy judge denied J&J's bid to block a lawsuit accusing the company of hiding evidence that its industrial talc operations exposed workers to asbestos.
Price Action: JNJ shares are down 0.15% at $165.37 on the last check Wednesday.