A jury ordered Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries to pay $1.5 billion to a Baltimore woman who was diagnosed with cancer after using the company’s baby powder product.

The Baltimore Circuit Court jury found the company liable for deceiving the public about the risks of talc-based baby powder and hiding that it caused mesothelioma, an incurable form of cancer.

The verdict is the largest against Johnson & Johnson, beating out a prior Los Angeles decision of $966 million.

The jury’s award includes $59.84 million in compensatory damages, covering medical expenses, wages and pain and suffering.

However, the rest of the decision is in punitive damages.

Jessica Dean, a partner at Dean, Omar, Branham and Shirley, who worked on the case, said Johnson & Johnson consistently lied about the safety of the product.

“The willingness to sacrifice future people's health to protect their pocketbook when they have unreal resources is gross,” Dean told WYPR.

She said she came up with the number for punitive damages by taking the net earnings of the company for the 25 days it was on trial, which came out to $950 million.

The jury decided that was still too little and added nearly $500 million more.

“We will immediately appeal this egregious and patently unconstitutional verdict that is the direct result of the gross errors made by the trial court that allowed plaintiff’s counsel to pervade the record with improper and prejudicial statements and assertions,” Johnson & Johnson worldwide vice president of litigation Erik Haas said in a statement.

The company is being sued by about 67,000 people who say they were diagnosed with cancer after exposure to baby powder.

Johnson & Johnson switched from talc-based to corn-starch-based baby powder in the U.S. in 2020 and worldwide in 2023.