The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Johnson & Johnson to overturn a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claimed the company’s talc product caused ovarian cancer. The ruling leaves intact a Missouri court decision to award the women the sizeable sum after a jury found that the company’s talc products contain asbestos and that asbestos-laced talc can cause cancer of the ovaries. The initial verdict was for $4.7 billion, but a Missouri appeals court reduced the award to $2 billion and dropped two women from the lawsuit. Johnson & Johnson disputes that its products cause cancer and insists the talc it uses is of high purity and is “only mined from select deposits in certified locations before being milled into relatively large, non-respirable-sized particles” and “is accepted as safe for use in cosmetic and personal care products throughout the world.” The company stopped selling its talc-based …