Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest health products company, must defend a lawsuit claiming it misled investors about quality control-failures at manufacturing plants that led to recalls, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton, New Jersey, ruled Dec. 19 that the securities fraud suit against J&J, Colleen Goggins, the former head of its consumer group, and another executive may go forward. She dismissed claims against Chief Executive Officer William Weldon and Peter Luther, president of the McNeil Consumer Healthcare division. The judge didn’t rule on the merits of the class-action, or group, lawsuit.
