FDA Research Seeks Better Understanding Of Talc’s Potential Cancer Link

16 Feb 2017

• By Lauren Nardella

FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors is heading up laboratory studies to explore an issue central to rampant litigation – talc’s effects on female genital system tissues, supported by a grant from the agency’s Office of Women’s Health. The agency is still finalizing a scientific literature review, but expects its research will help fill gaps that have not been adequately covered by epidemiologic and animal studies to date.

As Johnson & Johnson continues to face thousands of suits alleging that feminine hygiene use of the firm’s talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder and related products caused plaintiffs’ ovarian cancer, FDA will be conducting its own research into scientific issues under debate.

The agency is in the process of finalizing a review of published literature to identify data gaps, according to a...