Johnson & Johnson Not Fast Enough on Manufacturing Issues
In a previous post, we shared with you the voluntary recall made by Johnson & Johnson on more than 40 over-the-counter (OTC) children’s medications, including children’s Tylenol, Benadryl, Motrin and Zyrtec.
While there were no reports of illnesses or fatalities associated with the medicines that were recalled in April, the story behind it has not exactly ended. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Johnson & Johnson did not improve its manufacturing practices as fast as they should have, according to a feature on the Los Angeles Times.
Apparently, the FDA has spoken to senior officials of Johnson & Johnson as early as February, urging them to improve their manufacturing processes and to address consumer concerns faster. Among the issues that Johnson & Johnson had, aside from the April recall, were having to pull off 8 million bottles of children’s medicines from the market in September 2009 due to a quality control issue as well as consumer complaints about a musty odor emanating from medicine bottles that made some consumers sick.
The FDA also revealed that Johnson & Johnson were not as forthcoming as they should be about consumer complaints. The company is required to inform the FDA about complaints within three days, but it took them a year to do that.
At this time, Johnson & Johnson is being investigated by the criminal division of the FDA to see whether any of their lapses will result in the need for prosecution, as revealed by FDA principal deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein.
Tags: benadryl recall, Johnson and Johnson medications, Johnson and Johnson medicine, Johnson and Johnson recall, motrin recall, tylenol recall, zyrtec recall
