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 A total of 155 tests were conducted by two different third-party
labs using four different testing methods on samples from the same
bottle tested by the FDA's contracted lab, the company said.
The tests are the latest effort by J&J to prove the safety of its
widely used consumer product after the test by the FDA prompted J&J
to undertake a nationwide recall of one lot of Johnson's Baby Powder
in October.
The FDA was not immediately available for comment. However, in
response to an October announcement from J&J that a smaller number
of independent tests also found no asbestos, the regulatory agency
said it stood by its findings.
The different test outcomes could have resulted from the fact that
contaminants are not uniformly dispersed throughout talc and there
is no standard test for asbestos in talc, FDA officials told Reuters
in October.
Tests conducted by the third-party labs showed asbestos was not
present in the single bottle that the FDA's contracted lab had
tested, nor was it present in retained samples of the finished lot
from which the bottle was produced, the company said on Tuesday.
The company said its investigation concluded that the most probable
root causes for the FDA's reported results were either test sample
contamination or analyst error at the lab, or both.
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In October, J&J recalled around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the
United States after the FDA said it had found trace amounts of
asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased online.
The voluntary recall was limited to one lot of Johnson's Baby Powder
produced and shipped in the United States in 2018, the company said
at the time.
That move marked the first time the company recalled its baby powder
for possible asbestos contamination, and the first time U.S.
regulators have announced a finding of asbestos in the product.
Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has been linked to deadly
mesothelioma.
The recall was the latest blow to the more than 130-year-old U.S.
healthcare conglomerate that is facing thousands of lawsuits over a
variety of products, including baby powder, opioids, medical devices
and the antipsychotic Risperdal.
J&J faces more than 15,000 lawsuits from consumers claiming its talc
products, including Johnson's Baby Powder, caused their cancer.
(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and Carl O'Donnell in New
York; Editing by Neil Fullick and Rosalba O'Brien)
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