By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A brand new decide has been assigned to supervise tens of 1000’s of lawsuits in New Jersey federal courtroom in opposition to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) over its talc merchandise, two weeks after an appeals courtroom rejected the corporate’s plan to dump the claims out of business.

U.S. District Decide Michael Shipp, based mostly in Trenton, will take over the long-running litigation from former Chief District Decide Freda Wolfson, who retired from the bench on Feb. 1, in line with an order filed on Monday. The circumstances, numbering greater than 38,000, had been on maintain since October 2021, when a J&J subsidiary newly created to carry the talc liabilities filed for chapter.

Plaintiffs have stated that J&J’s Child Powder and different talc merchandise include asbestos and brought on most cancers.

J&J maintains its shopper talc merchandise are protected and confirmed by means of 1000’s of exams to be asbestos-free. The corporate has stated it would problem the ruling by the Philadelphia-based third U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals dismissing the chapter, which it stated was meant in good religion to resolve talc claims effectively and equitably.

Shipp, 57, was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012. He has presided over a separate lawsuit in opposition to J&J, during which an emeritus Harvard Legislation Faculty professor is looking for to drive the corporate to place his proposal requiring shareholders to carry any securities claims by means of personal arbitration up for a shareholder vote. Shipp dismissed the newest model of the lawsuit, which is now on attraction.

He has overseen a number of pharmaceutical business circumstances together with patent disputes and a category motion accusing Merck & Co Inc of discriminating in opposition to pregnant staff, which settled in 2018.

Earlier than the 2021 chapter submitting, J&J had confronted prices of $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements stemming from the talc litigation.

A 2018 Reuters investigation discovered that J&J knew for many years that asbestos, a identified carcinogen, was current in its Child Powder and different beauty talc merchandise. The corporate stopped promoting Child Powder in the USA and Canada in Might 2020, partly on account of what it referred to as “misinformation” and “unfounded allegations” in regards to the talc-based product.