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Johnson & Johnson has agreed to settle two of the thousands of talc-related lawsuits it faces over claims the company’s baby powder causes cancer.

The New Brunswick-headquartered health conglomerate did not disclose terms of the agreement with the two men who said they developed mesothelioma from using J&J’s baby powder, but said it was part of a broader deal to settle all talc-related cases brought by Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood, a Los Angeles-based law firm.

J&J did not say how many cases the resolution covered, but told NJBIZ it is “in furtherance of our stated goal of achieving a complete, equitable and efficient resolution of the talc litigation.”

“Our negotiations continue with the remaining firms who have a shared interest in achieving a fair and expedient resolution of their clients’ talc claims,” the company stated. “For those firms who elect not to pursue reasoned resolutions, we will continue to aggressively litigate their claims in the tort system, where we have prevailed in the overwhelming majority of the cases tried because the claims are meritless and are based upon junk science.”

The cases were the first to go to trial since J&J’s second attempt to resolve its mass talc liabilities via bankruptcy fell apart following a federal judge’s dismissal, returning more than 50,000 lawsuits back to the civil tort system.

In rendering his decision in July, Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton said that LTL Management – a subsidiary created by the New Brunswick health care giant to handle such claims – is not eligible for Chapter 11 because the company is not in financial distress.

LTL’s first bankruptcy filing was dismissed in January by a Third Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Philadelphia, which ruled that neither J&J nor is subsidiary were in dire financial straits. Three months later, LTL tried again to use the strategy – known as the Texas two-step – filing a second time for Chapter 11 and proposing an $8.9 billion settlement to resolve current and future claims. 

The company, which has continued to maintain that its products are safe, pulled its talc-based baby powders off the market in the U.S. and Canada three years ago and replaced them with a cornstarch-based version. J&J has also vowed to stop selling all its talc-based baby powders worldwide by the end of 2023.

Reuters noted the lawsuits “have a mixed record,” with major plaintiff wins including a $2.1 billion judgment awarded to 22 women with ovarian cancer.

However, J&J has also won reversals of some cases — such as a $117 million verdict in the same New Jersey appeals court and a $120 million verdict in New York.

In October, a federal appeals court tossed out a $223 million jury award to four mesothelioma patients from New Jersey, finding the testimony of the plaintiffs’ expert unsound.