Cornwall ON – People talk about issues with generic drugs and preference to name brand drugs, but what happens when a drug company has repeated recalls?
Johnson & Johnson, makers of brands such as Tylenol have been hit hard in 2010. The latest impacting their McNeil Consumer Healthcare products.
LINK 1 “…is voluntarily recalling, at the wholesale level, certain lots of TYLENOL® 8 Hour, TYLENOL® Arthritis Pain, and TYLENOL® upper respiratory products, and certain lots of BENADRYL®, SUDAFED PE®, and SINUTAB® products distributed in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil. These products were manufactured at the McNeil plant in Fort Washington, PA prior to April 2010, when production at the facility was suspended.”
LINK 2 Tylenol, Benadryl, Sudafed SE, Sinutab, Rolaids, click link to see full list as it’s lengthy.
Frankly it’s just plain scary, and perhaps much more needs to be done to protect consumers although if recalls are happening at least we know what’s going on.
A TIMELINE OF THE MCNEIL CONSUMER HEALTHCARE / JOHNSON & JOHNSON RECALLS:
2008 — “Phantom recall” — Johnson & Johnson allegedly hired contractors to pose as customers and buy adult Motrin in order to remove the product from store shelves.
November 2009 — Recall of five lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplets because of an unusual smell or taste. Consumers reported nausea and related symptoms.
December 2009 — Expanded recall to include ALL lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain Caplets.
January 15, 2010 — Massive recall of over-the-counter drugs because of an odor was caused by the presence of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA). The recall includes, but is not limited to: Tylenol (many versions), Motrin, Benadryl, Rolaids, St. Joseph’s Aspirin, and Simply Sleep products. Many people were sickened by the odor — including nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
The FDA said McNeil knew of the problem in early 2008.
March 31, 2010 – McNeil recalls Zyrtec Itchy Eye Drops
April 30, 2010: Recall of more than 40 types of children’s and infants’ products – 135 million bottles. Quality issues included the possibility of the medication containing too much of the active ingredient, containing substandard inactive ingredients, and/or containing tiny particles.
May 5, 2010: Additional recalls: Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and ZYRTEC. The FDA found “serious” problems at the McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant. Raw materials were found to be contaminated with bacteria, but they were used anyway. Quality control was lacking. And the company didn’t investigate potential manufacturing mess-ups, even after receiving consumer complaints about medicines contaminated with black particles, the report notes. “The findings are serious,” FDA official Deborah Autor tells the Washington Post. “Consumers should not use these products.”
May 6, 2010 – Philadelphia Public Health Examiner: The FDA has charged that McNeil knew the raw material had known contamination with gram negative organisms [bacteria] yet approved it for use to manufacture several lots of Children’s and Infant’s Tylenol drug products.
May 6, 2010 – CNNMoney.com — The FDA confirmed that the bacteria found at the Johnson & Johnson plant that produced the recalled children’s medicines was Burkholderia cepacia.
May 28, 2010: Blacksmith Brands recalls four PediaCare children’s cough and cold products manufactured at the same McNeil Consumer Healthcare plant.
June 15, 2010: McNeil expandes 1/15/10 recall to include five more lots of Benadryl and Tylenol that were “inadvertently omitted from the initial recall action.” Congress announced it would investigate.
July 8, 2010: Recalls of 21 more lots of over-the-counter medicines sold in the U.S., Fiji, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica, including: Benadryl, Motrin, Zyrtec, Tylenol in various forms.
Also, five complaints filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois against McNeil are seeking class-action status. Consumers accused McNeil of fraud and racketeering for not recalling all of its children’s products and for not adequately reimbursing consumers for their out-of-pocket expenses. . The buyers of those recalled meds are demanding cash refunds–rather than coupons for replacement products–in five suits.
July 16, 2010 – Rep. Towns, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says Johnson & Johnson has used delaying tactics in its dealings with the committee and had provided misinformation. . . The FDA has referred the McNeil case to its office of criminal investigation. http://www.jerebeasleyreport.com/2010/07/drug-maker-fails-to-cooperate/
November 29, 2010 – Recalls of over 12 million bottles of Mylanta and 85,000 bottles of Alternagel. The bottles failed to note the alcohol content.
December 10, 2010 – Recalls of more than 13 million packages of Rolaids anti-acid tablets following reports of foreign substances inside the tablets, including bits of wood and metal suspected to be in bottles all over the country.
January 2011 – Recalls of SUDAFED, Tylenol, and additional non-prescription medication.
When will the entire story be exposed? When will the media investigate and make a full report? When will J & J be shut down?
Relax there, when legislators and cronies have unloaded all of their stock… then it will all come out.
As for main stream media investigating (ouch, my ribs!)… are living in the seventies man?
The main stream media is busy editing corporate and political promos and public relations pieces — changing copy from first person to third person — to fill the 24/7 wasteland they wrap around the commercial advertising that is fifth estate’s new “raison d’etre”.
It’s really sad that Johnson & Johnson used to be such a brand name and seen as a wholesome family company and now it seems as if they’re recalling everything they produce; even items that have been on the market for years are surfacing with problems. After the latest Tylenol recall, I was interested in seeing what other types of drugs had been recalled recently, so I decided to take my chances with the internet. Lucky enough, I came across a fantastic website that was extremely helpful and informative with great articles or recalled drugs and medicines. http://www.drugrecalls.com