Thousands of women suing Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) over claims that its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer cleared a key procedural hurdle after a court-appointed special master recommended that their expert witnesses be allowed to testify at trial.

In December 2025, a Baltimore jury ordered Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries to pay over $1.5 billion to a woman who claimed that decades of exposure to asbestos in the company’s talc-based products caused her peritoneal mesothelioma.

Reuters on Wednesday reported that the recommendation moves the long-running federal litigation closer to its first trial, potentially later this year, despite the company’s objections to the scientific evidence underpinning the claims.

The recommendation was issued by retired U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson, who was appointed to evaluate expert testimony in litigation pending in federal court in New Jersey.

The cases involve more ...