BREAKING Slovakia's prime minister injured in shooting
Media reports say Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital.
Johnson & Johnson will get a new chance to contest the scientific evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday, potentially disrupting more than 53,000 lawsuits the company is now facing over its talc products.
In a brief written order, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp in Trenton New Jersey, who is overseeing the lawsuits that have been consolidated in his court, said recent changes in the law and new scientific evidence requires a fresh review of the evidence that linked J&J products to ovarian cancer.
Shipp took over the case in February 2023, after the retirement of former Chief District Judge Freda Wolfson, who had overseen the litigation since 2016.
J&J Worldwide Vice President of Litigation Erik Haas said the company was very pleased by the ruling, and that it intended to "shine a light on some of the made-for-court junk science" used in recent trials.
"The passage of time has only solidified the decades of medicine and science that support Johnson & Johnson's position in these cases," Haas said in a statement.
J&J has repeatedly denied claims that its baby powder and other talc products cause cancer or contain asbestos, a known cause of mesothelioma.
Leigh O'Dell and Michelle Parfitt, lead lawyers for plaintiffs in the federal litigation, said the scientific evidence that J&J products caused cancer is "stronger than ever."
"The truth of J&J’s deceptive conduct to hide the presence of carcinogens in talcum powder and mislead the medical and scientific communities has only become clearer over time," O'Dell and Parfitt said in a statement.
The talc lawsuits had been on hold from 2021 to 2023, while J&J pursued failed efforts to resolve the litigation through the bankruptcy of a subsidiary company, LTL Management. Trials have since resumed, and the latest case ended in a hung jury on March 5.
J&J will have until July 23 to make renewed arguments about the scientific evidence in the case, according to Shipp's order.
Trials in the talc cases have had a mixed record, with major plaintiff wins including a US$2.1 billion judgment in 2021 awarded to 22 women with ovarian cancer. A New Jersey appeals court in October threw out a US$223.7 million verdict against the company, finding the testimony of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses unsound.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Leslie Adler, Bill Berkrot and Alexia Garamfalvi)
Media reports say Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital.
Wildfires continue to impact air quality across Western Canada, with conditions expected to worsen on Wednesday before improving.
A new COVID-19 subvariant is dominant in Canada, representing just over 30 per cent of cases in the country, but infectious disease experts say there’s no sign it’ll evolve into a summer 'scarient.'
A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for an armed gang that killed two prison officers and seriously injured three others to spring an inmate they were escorting.
Thousands of people in Western Canada remain displaced from their homes as wildfires threaten their communities, triggering evacuation orders and alerts.
The sun produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades Tuesday, just days after severe solar storms pummelled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places.
As wildfires rage in British Columbia, the family of a nine-year-old who died last summer is trying to protect people from poor air quality due to smoke this year.
A Malahide Township resident is out more than $2 million following a romance scam.
The husband of adult film actress Stormy Daniels said on Tuesday that there’s a 'good chance' the couple will leave the country if former U.S. president Donald Trump is acquitted in his Manhattan criminal trial.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.