Another lawsuit! Johnson & Johnson settled for $55 million

Johnson & Johnson Vision and Alcon have agreed to settle a case of price-fixing by contact lens makers. J&j Vision will pay $55 million, and Alcon agreed to pay $20 million, for a total settlement of $75 million, according to court documents.

So far, a five-year class action lawsuit, finally came to an end.

The lawsuit stems from a joint complaint filed in 2017 in a Florida district court. Alcon, Johnson & Johnson, Cooper Optics and Bausch & L.M., along with ABB Optical Group, their joint distributor, the American Optometrist Association and independent eye care professionals, "collated with each other" to prescribe the same minimum price to all retailers, the lawsuit alleges.

According to the plaintiffs, as early as June 2013, the companies set minimum prices for several contact lenses, while also threatening to reduce supply if retailers sold the products at a discount. The action falls under the category of price manipulation, according to the indictment. The lawsuit alleges that ABB Optical Group, the distributor, did the same because it is the largest contact lens distributor in the United States, working with more than two-thirds of the contact lens clinics.

ABB Optical Group reached a $30.2 million settlement in 2020. Two other companies in the lawsuit, Bausker & Lombard and Cooper Optical, have also agreed to settle, paying $10 million and $3 million, respectively, in 2019. With Alcon's settlement with J&J, the total penalty for the long-running class-action lawsuit stands at $118.2 million.

After all litigation ends, eligible consumers will receive compensation from the settlement funds between 2013 and 2018.

J&J has been hit with a number of class action lawsuits in recent years.

Just last month, Shine Lawyers, a law firm representing Australian companies, said Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon had agreed to settle two previous Australian class-action lawsuits for 300 million Australian dollars, or about 1.4 billion yuan. According to the lawsuit, the patients all experienced tissue erosion, inflammation, pelvic pain and infection after using the implanted pelvic mesh products. If the court approves the deal, it could be the largest product liability class action settlement in Australian history.

In addition, J&J has also been Mired in the cancer scandal of talcum powder for several years. On August 11 this year, Johnson & Johnson announced that it will stop selling baby powder containing talc worldwide from 2023, and will transition to all corn starch as raw materials. At the same time, J&J reiterated in its statement that decades of independent scientific analysis have proved that its talc products are safe, do not contain asbestos, and do not cause cancer.

In addition to the lawsuits, J&J was embroiled in an opioid dispute in 2018. It wasn't until Feb. 28 that J&J and three major drug distributors reached a $26 billion settlement with a number of state and local governments. J&j will pay $5bn over nine years, while the distributor agreed to pay $21bn over 18 years. The settlement is by far the largest in the nation's many opioid-related lawsuits.

In the first half of 2022, J&J's sales reached $47.446 billion, up 4% from a year earlier. Among them, pharmaceutical business revenue of $26.186 billion; Medical device business revenue of $13.869 billion; Consumer health revenue was $7.391 billion.

On September 28, J&J announced that it would spin off its consumer health division into a separate company called Kenvue. Meanwhile, Thibaut Mongon, a 20-year veteran of Johnson & Johnson, has been named Kenvue's CEO-designate. The spin-off, the biggest shake-up in J&J's 136-year history, is expected to be completed next year.

The name Johnson & Johnson will be retained for the pharmaceutical and medical device business, and Joaquin Duato, Johnson & Johnson's chief executive, will run the company. He said at the JPM conference earlier this year that the overall business goal is to reach $80 billion by 2025. To achieve this goal, J&J plans to file 36 new indications by 2025 for its existing 13 blockbuster products, which will be the main driver of growth through 2025.