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 Johnson & Johnson lost a third straight trial over claims its talcum powder can cause ovarian cancer with a St. Louis jury awarding a California woman more than $70 million. 
 
 J&J is accused in about 1,700 lawsuits in state and federal court of ignoring studies linking its baby powder and Shower-to-Shower talc products to ovarian cancer and failing to warn customers about the risk. Thursday’s verdict follows damages verdicts of $72 million and $55 million against the company this year in the first two talc claims to go to trial in St. Louis. Both are being appealed. 
 
 Deborah Giannecchini, 62, used J&J’s baby powder for feminine hygiene for more than four decades until her diagnosis with ovarian cancer three years ago, according to her lawyers. She has an 80 percent chance of dying in the next two years, and has undergone surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, they said. 
 
 A J&J unit was ordered to pay $65 million in punitive damages and 90 percent of about $2.5 million for medical costs and pain and suffering. Co-defendant Imerys Talc America, the supplier of the talc, was hit with $2.5 million in punitive damages. Jurors returned the verdict after deliberating for about three hours. 
 
 The company should have provided a warning label on the product to let consumers decide whether to use talc, one juror Billie Ray, 76, of St. Louis, said after the trial. “It seemed like Johnson & Johnson didn’t pay attention,” she said. “It seemed like they didn’t care.” 
 
 Giannecchini appeared overwhelmed by the verdict. “I’ve waited for a long time for this,” she said. “I’ve wanted this so badly.” 
 
 J&J will appeal, said Carol Goodrich, company spokeswoman. “We are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder,” she said in a statement. 
 
 Imerys ‘Disappointed’ 
 
 Imerys is “disappointed’’ with the verdict, said Dan Rene, a company spokesman. Imerys had been cleared in the two prior St. Louis trials, as well as in two claims dismissed in New Jersey, Rene said in a statement. 
 
 “This verdict serves to undermine efforts by the scientific community to determine the true causes of ovarian cancer,’’ Rene said. “The theories relied upon by plaintiffs’ experts lacked scientific foundation.’’ 
 
 J&J is facing hundreds of claims in St. Louis state court, which has become a magnet for plaintiffs’ product defect claims, as well as about 300 suits in Los Angeles, another 200 in New Jersey and a growing number of federal cases combined before one judge in that state. A New Jersey state court judge last month threw out two talc cases set for trial, finding inadequate scientific support for the claims. 
 
 JNJ has denied any link to talc use and ovarian cancer. 
 
 “Science, research, clinical evidence and decades of studies by medical experts around the world continue to support the safety of cosmetic talc,’’ Goodrich said before the verdict. The New Jersey dismissal decision “highlights the lack of scientific evidence behind plaintiffs’ allegations,” she said. 
 
 Risk Known 
 
 J&J was aware of “30 years of studies showing an increased risk of ovarian cancer from the use of talc,” Giannecchini’s lawyer, Allen Smith, told jurors in the St. Louis trial. “They knew, and they knew the public was unaware of the risk.” Instead of adding warning labels, J&J “developed a defense strategy to prevent government regulation of its products,” he said. 
 
 “I think the jury heard our message loud and clear,” Smith said after the verdict. “If this doesn’t send a message to J&J to add a warning, I don’t know what will.” 
 
 The case is Hogans v. Johnson & Johnson, 1422-CC09012-01, Circuit Court, St. Louis City, Missouri (St. Louis). ||||| A St. Louis jury on Thursday awarded a California woman more than $70 million in her lawsuit alleging that years of using Johnson & Johnson's baby powder caused her cancer, the latest case raising concerns about the health ramifications of extended talcum powder use. 
 
 The jury ruling ended the trial that began Sept. 26 in the case brought by Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, California. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The suit accused Johnson & Johnson of "negligent conduct" in making and marketing its baby powder. 
 
 "We are pleased the jury did the right thing," said Jim Onder, an attorney for the plaintiff. "They once again reaffirmed the need for Johnson & Johnson to warn the public of the ovarian cancer risk associated with its product." 
 
 Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman with Johnson & Johnson, could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement provided to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, she said: "We deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by ovarian cancer. We will appeal today's verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder." 
 
 Earlier this year, two other lawsuits in St. Louis ended in jury verdicts worth a combined $127 million. But two others in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said there wasn't reliable evidence that talc leads to ovarian cancer, an often fatal but relatively rare form of cancer. Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer expected to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. 
 
 About 2,000 women have filed similar suits, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts out of St. Louis — a $72 million award in February to relatives of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer, and a $55 million award in May to a South Dakota survivor of the disease. 
 
 Much research has found no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have declared talc harmless. Johnson & Johnson, whose baby powder dominates the market, maintains it's perfectly safe. 
 
 But Onder of the Onder Law Firm in suburban St. Louis, which represented plaintiffs in all three St. Louis cases, cited other research that began connecting talcum powder to ovarian cancer in the 1970s. He said case studies have indicated that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. ||||| (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) was ordered by a Missouri state jury to pay $72 million of damages to the family of a woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. 
 
 In a verdict announced late Monday night, jurors in the circuit court of St. Louis awarded the family of Jacqueline Fox $10 million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages, according to the family’s lawyers and court records. 
 
 The verdict is the first by a U.S. jury to award damages over the claims, the lawyers said. 
 
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 Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York October 15, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson 
 
 Johnson & Johnson faces claims that it, in an effort to boost sales, failed for decades to warn consumers that its talc-based products could cause cancer. About 1,000 cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey. 
 
 Fox, who lived in Birmingham, Alabama, claimed she used Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for feminine hygiene for more than 35 years before being diagnosed three years ago with ovarian cancer. She died in October at age 62. 
 
 Jurors found Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy, the family’s lawyers said. Deliberations lasted four hours, following a three-week trial. 
 
 Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox’s family, said Johnson & Johnson “knew as far back as the 1980s of the risk,” and yet resorted to “lying to the public, lying to the regulatory agencies.” He spoke on a conference call with journalists. 
 
 Carol Goodrich, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, said: “We have no higher responsibility than the health and safety of consumers, and we are disappointed with the outcome of the trial. We sympathize with the plaintiff’s family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence.” 
 
 Trials in several other talc lawsuits have been set for later this year, according to Danielle Mason, who also represented Fox’s family at trial. 
 
 In October 2013, a federal jury in Sioux Falls, South Dakota found that plaintiff Deane Berg’s use of Johnson & Johnson’s body powder products was a factor in her developing ovarian cancer. Nevertheless, it awarded no damages, court records show. 
 
 Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc VRX.TO now owns the Shower to Shower brand but was not a defendant in the Fox case. 
 
 The case is Hogans et al v. Johnson & Johnson et al, Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, Missouri, No. 1422-CC09012. ||||| Woman Who Used J&J; Products Awarded $72M 
 
 ST. LOUIS (CN) - An Alabama woman's family was awarded $72 million by a St. Louis jury Monday night on her claims that she developed ovarian cancer through the longtime use of Johnson & Johnson baby powder and other talc-based products. 
 
 Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., died last October from the cancer. Her son took over as plaintiff after her death and jurors heard from Fox in an audio deposition recorded before her death. 
 
 Fox claimed she used the Johnson & Johnson products for feminine hygiene purposes for 35 years. Fox's lawsuit is one of many from across the country alleging that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn of a possible link between ovarian cancer and talcum powder. 
 
 A St. Louis jury deliberated for nearly five hours Monday after a three-week trial. It found Johnson & Johnson guilty of negligence, conspiracy and fraud, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 
 
 The verdict includes $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages. 
 
 Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J., is expected to appeal the verdict. 
 
 "We have no higher responsibility than the health and safety of consumers, and we are disappointed with the outcome of the trial," Carol Goodrich, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, said in an email to the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday morning. "We sympathize with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence." 
 
 Jere Beasley, Fox's lawyer, told the Post-Dispatch that his Alabama firm had heard from more than 6,000 potential clients over the years. The case ended up in St. Louis after Beasley and a Mississippi lawyer joined with a St. Louis firm representing several women who also have ovarian cancer. 
 
 Fox was the first of the plaintiffs whose case went to trial, according to the Post-Dispatch.
– For more than 40 years, Deborah Giannecchini used Johnson & Johnson baby powder and other talcum powder products—and on Thursday, a St. Louis jury awarded more than $70 million in damages on her claim, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The 63-year-old Californian said those J&J products contributed to her developing ovarian cancer. The jury voted against J&J 10-2—one of the dissenters actually didn't think the award was enough—with an award of $575,000 in medical damages, $2 million in compensatory damages, $2.5 million in compensatory damages against Imerys Talc (the producer of the talcum powder), and $65 million in punitive damages against J&J. About half of the punitive damages will go to the Missouri Crime Victims' Compensation Program, per Jim Onder of Onder Law, which has handled all three cases with awarded damages so far. Memos from inside J&J show the company knew for decades about research tying the use of talc powder to ovarian cancer, Onder says—though CNBC says "much" of that research has been "weak." Giannecchini, however, had no clue of possible risks. "There isn't a way to describe how you feel ... when you're told you probably won't make it beyond the next year," she says of receiving her stage 4 cancer diagnosis in 2012. Per her lawyers, Giannecchini has about an 80% chance of dying within the next two years, Bloomberg reports. Not that Onder expects J&J to cede to the nearly 2,000 state and federal complaints against it; instead, he believes the company will take a "scorched-earth legal policy" and not settle "until they absolutely have to." In a statement, a J&J rep says the company will appeal because it's "guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder."