Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said he's keeping an eye on 23andMe's bankruptcy proceeding and the company's planned sale because of privacy concerns related to genetic testing data. 23andMe and its future owner must uphold the company's privacy promises, Ferguson said in a letter sent yesterday to representatives of the US Trustee Program, a Justice Department division that oversees administration of bankruptcy proceedings.

A Houston bankruptcy judge has rejected Johnson & Johnson’s to use federal bankruptcy procedures to force a settlement with 90,000 women — including 2,558 of them in Texas and 465 in the DFW area — who have sued the pharmaceutical giant for making and selling a toxic baby powder that they claim caused their ovarian and other gynecological cancers. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said J&J’s plan to forge a $9 billion settlement with the victims was a legally legitimate attempt but was filled with substantive, uncurable flaws, including an unnecessarily...

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) stock slumped Tuesday after a judge rejected its $10 billion proposal to settle thousands of lawsuits claiming its baby powder and other talc-based products caused cancer. A bankruptcy judge in Texas dismissed J&J's case, saying the company used a flawed process to solicit votes from claimants, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said in a report. J&J says it will return to the civil court system "to defeat merciless talc claims." This is the third time Johnson & Johnson's bankruptcy strategy has been tangled up in court....

Stellantis faces brands dilemma amid CEO search. Plus we are not sure how many of the automaker's brands have a viable future. Brands ranging from bestsellers like Jeep and Peugeot to the struggling names like DS, Lancia, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, the next leader will need a clear strategy for streamlining operations and driving profitability and sell off brands that are not profitable. Stellantis is the result of the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot owner PSA, which creating the world’s fourth-largest automaker. However, the company’s broad brand mix...

Per 9News.com, the local NBC affiliate in Denver and AP, 23andMe files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as co-founder and CEO Wojcicki resigns. Those assets include your genetic data (for those who have taken the 23 and Me genetic tests to see who you’re related to in this great wide world). 23andMe says its bankruptcy filing won’t change the way it stores or protects data. Jensen, the board chair, said Sunday that 23andMe is “committed to continuing to safeguard customer data” and that data privacy will be “an important consideration” in...