NEW YORK, May 1(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) is

moving forward with a $6.475 billion proposed settlement of tens

of thousands of lawsuits alleging that its baby powder and other

talc products contain asbestos and cause ovarian cancer, the

company said Wednesday in a statement.

The deal would allow it to resolve the lawsuits through a

third bankruptcy filing of a subsidiary company. It will begin a

three month voting period in hopes of reaching consensus on a

settlement of all current and future ovarian cancer claims.

Ovarian cancer claims account for 99% of the talc-related

lawsuits filed against J&J, including about 54,000 lawsuits that

are centralized in a New Jersey federal court proceeding.

Courts have rebuffed J&J's two previous efforts to resolve

the lawsuits through the bankruptcy of the subsidiary created to

absorb J&J's talc liability, LTL Management.

J&J, which says that its products do not contain asbestos

and do not cause cancer, said that its settlement has the

support of a majority of attorneys representing plaintiffs who

have filed cancer lawsuits against the company.

J&J said it is confident that the deal will reach a 75%

support threshold needed for a bankruptcy settlement that would

end the litigation entirely, shutting off future lawsuits and

preventing people from opting out of the deal to pursue their

separate lawsuits.

The proposed deal would build on J&J's settlements with

about 95% of people who have sued the company after developing

mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure,

as well as its settlements with U.S. states, which have alleged

that the company failed to warn consumers about the dangers of

its talc products.

J&J did not disclose the value of the mesothelioma

settlements, but it said that it recorded an incremental charge

of $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024, to account for

recent talc-related settlements.

In its second bankruptcy filing, LTL put forward an $8.9

billion deal that would also have addressed the mesothelioma

cancer lawsuits and states' consumer protection actions, in

addition to the ovarian cancer claims addressed by the current

deal.

The previous bankruptcy filings put the talc litigation on

hold from 2021 to 2023, but trials have resumed after a federal

judge ruled the latest bankruptcy case should be dismissed in

July 2023.

In March, J&J received a new chance to contest the

scientific evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer in the

centralized litigation in New Jersey federal court. The judge

overseeing the cases said that recent changes in the law and new

scientific evidence require a fresh review, and he asked J&J to

present new arguments on the science by late July.

J&J said it will continue to defend itself against the

lawsuits while trying to gather votes on the settlement. The

company said it has prevailed in 95% of ovarian cases tried to

date, including every ovarian case tried over the last six

years.

But, the litigation has resulted in some large verdicts for

plaintiffs, including a $2.12 billion award in favor of 22 women

who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in J&J talc. In the

past month, J&J was recently ordered to pay $45 million in a

mesothelioma case while winning an ovarian cancer case.