Johnson & Johnson, a major US pharmaceutical company, put forth an $8.9 billion settlement offer on Tuesday to settle thousands of lawsuits over talcum powder containing traces of asbestos blamed for causing ovarian cancer.

The bankruptcy court still needs to approve the proposed deal, according to the New Jersey-based corporation, but it "will equitably and efficiently resolve all claims originating from cosmetic talc litigation."

The $8.9 billion deal would rank with those reached by cigarette corporations and, more recently, opioid makers as one of the largest product liability settlements ever in the United States, assuming it is accepted by the court and a majority of the claimants.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against J&J because of talcum powder that may have contained traces of asbestos and was linked to ovarian cancer.

The company has never acknowledged wrongdoing, but as of May 2020, it no longer sold its talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada.

The $8.9 billion, according to J&J, would be distributed over a 25-year period to the tens of thousands of claimants through a J&J company called LTL Management LLC, which was formed to handle the claims and has applied for bankruptcy protection.

It said that LTL has "secured commitments from over 60,000 current claimants to support a global resolution on these terms."

An appellate court rejected a previous LTL deal, thus a bankruptcy judge will now need to approve the current LTL bankruptcy file and settlement.

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