Johnson & Johnson has made an offer of nearly $9billion (£7.2billion) to try to resolve claims that its baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer.
The amount is four times bigger than its original settlement offer of $2billion.
Announced in a securities filing on Tuesday, the pharmaceuticals giant said it would pay the $8.9billion over the course of 25 years for "complete resolution" of the talc claims.
Johnson & Johnson is reportedly facing over 40,000 lawsuits from customers.
Some claimants alleged the baby powder contained ovarian cancer-causing asbestos.
Johnson & Johnson stopped its US sales of the talc-based product in 2020 and last year announced it was to halt sales across the world in 2023. It now sells cornstarch-based baby powder instead.
The company has been trying to resolve the lawsuits through a bankruptcy court since 2021 after it created a subsidiary called LTL Management to manage the baby powder claims.
In January of this year, a US appeals court overturned the LTL Management bankruptcy protection claims, finding that the company wasn’t in “financial distress.”
The company refiled for voluntary bankruptcy protection on Tuesday hoping that the revised offer will make it more likely that the plan will be accepted.
Johnson & Johnson said that the refiling was not "an admission of wrongdoing". The company continues to deny the allegations and claims decades of independent research shows the product is safe to use.
It also reiterated that the claims were "spacious" and lacked "scientific merit".
Johnson & Johnson said its new offer has support from around 60,000 current claimants.
The pharmaceutical company has faced harsh criticism about its approach to the baby powder lawsuits.
Many claims that the use of bankruptcy protection in this way - which is often referred to as a "Texas Two-Step" – allows defendants facing claims to sidestep their legal and financial obligations.
However, Erik Haas, who is Johnson & Johnson's worldwide vice president of litigation, said the bankruptcy court had acknowledged that resolving these cases in the personal injury lawsuits system could take decades could take decades and result in massive costs for LTL Management.
He also said that "most claimants" would also never receive any compensation.
He added: "Resolving this matter through the proposed reorganisation plan is both more equitable and more efficient [and] allows claimants to be compensated in a timely manner."
