On January 30, a federal appellate court in Philadelphia dismissed the bankruptcy filed by the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) subsidiary in October 2021, ruling that the pharmaceutical giant cannot use a corporate bankruptcy to escape the liabilities stemming from lawsuits over its allegedly carcinogenic baby powder products.

The federal court’s ruling revives about 40,000 baby powder lawsuits that have once been put to a halt due to J&J’s creation of a new subsidiary and the subsequent bankruptcy filing by that newly formed company. Shares of J&J fell 3.7% on news of the ruling, wiping about $17 billion off their market value.