The daily business briefing: August 22, 2017

Jury tells Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in talc lawsuit, stocks edge up after last week's losses, and more

Johnson & Johnson products
(Image credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

1. Jury orders Johnson & Johnson to pay woman $417 million in talc lawsuit

A California jury on Monday found Johnson & Johnson liable for failing to warn a woman over the alleged risk of ovarian cancer from the company's baby powder, and ordered it to pay $417 million. The verdict includes $347 million in punitive damages. Johnson & Johnson has lost four previous jury verdicts with judgments in St. Louis totaling $300 million, and it faces 5,500 claims altogether linking its baby powder and Shower to Shower talc to ovarian cancer. The Monday verdict was the first outside Missouri. The company said it would appeal.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.