A Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million on Friday to two women who claimed that talcum powder made by Johnson & Johnson caused their ovarian cancer.

The jury awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband. This verdict marks the latest development in ongoing litigation over claims that talc in Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder was connected to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma , a cancer that strikes the lungs and other organs.

Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson's worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement that the company had won “16 of the 17 ovarian cancer cases it previously tried” and expected to do so again upon appealing Friday's verdict.

He also called the jury's findings "irreconcilable with the decades of

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