Why Johnson & Johnson Would Like to Forget 2016: QuickTake Q&A

Johnson & Johnson had a year for the record books -- it lost six of 2016’s seven largest jury verdicts in the U.S. over product defect claims. This year may be no better. The company is facing at least 17 trials in state and federal courts in the U.S. over hip implants, talcum powder, pelvic mesh, an anti-psychotic drug and a blood thinner. And beyond these trials, there are tens of thousands more potential claims over those five products.

Pretty bad. Companies rarely get hit with more than two or three product defect verdicts above $20 million in any given year. J&J lost six of more than $50 million. The company was hit with two hip implant verdicts: one for $1 billion (the seventh-largest product-defect award in U.S. history) and another for $500 million. The company lost all three talc cases that went to trial in 2016, for verdicts of $72 million, $70 million and $55 million, each by St. Louis juries. A Philadelphia jury in July awarded the largest-ever Risperdal verdict -- $70 million to a Tennessee teenager -- that dwarfed the previous $2.5 million record for such claims.