Johnson & Johnson to stop the sale of its talc-based baby powder globally in 2023

The company announced its decision two years after it stopped selling the product

Johnson & Johnson talc-based baby powder will no longer be available globally from 2023. The company announced its decision more than two years after it stopped selling the product in the United States and Canada. "As part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, we have made the commercial decision to transition to an all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio," it said in a statement to Fox Business. In 2020, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would stop selling its talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, saying demand had fallen due to "misleading" information regarding the product's safety.

The company faced about 38,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors, claiming its talc-based products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, which is a known carcinogen. Johnson & Johnson denies the allegations, saying decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals have shown its talc to be safe and that the product "does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer." Johnson & Johnson spun off subsidiary LTL Management, assigned its talc claims to it, and immediately placed it into bankruptcy, pausing the pending lawsuits.