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Johnson & Johnson Drug Recall for Pediatric Drugs

 

in April, has had several troubling safety issues. According to the agency, it is likely to consider sanctions against the unit, McNeil Consumer Healthcare.

The problems with McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s safety issues burst into the spotlight in April this year, when the company announced a massive recall of children’s medications, including a large number of popular brands like Tylenol. Other popular drugs involved in the recall included Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl. The company said that the recall was due to excessive concentrations of the active ingredient in the drugs. The drugs also contained contaminants including metal specs, as well as inactive ingredients that did not meet testing requirements.

The contamination of pediatric drugs was only discovered after Food and Drug Administration investigators inspected McNeil’s facility at Fort Washington. They found that employees had not been trained in good and safe manufacturing practices, and that there were safety issues with equipment sterility.

Anxious parents around the country spent a sleepless couple of weeks, while both McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson struggled to explain the extent of the problem. For several days after the Johnson & Johnson drug recall, there were very few details that California personal injury lawyers or parents had about the reasons for the recall. Considering that brands like Tylenol and Benadryl are so widely used in the American market, and that these products are used by children, worries about the health risks from using these products were high.

This week, McNeil Consumer Healthcare is being asked to provide reasons for the recall and the cause of the contamination in the pediatric drugs, at a special congressional hearing. Also this week, the Food and Drug Administration’s principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, alleged that safety issues at McNeil Consumer Healthcare went further than the April recall. For instance, according to Dr. Sharfstein, in 2008, McNeil had quietly hired a contractor to remove Motrin packages that were suspected of safety problems, from retail stores. Dr. Sharfstein called this an “unannounced recall,” and believes that this reflects poorly on the company. California injury lawyers would agree. It doesn’t say much for the company’s ethical practices that it chose to quietly get possibly defective products removed from stores, in order to avoid being penalized.

Now, McNeil Consumer Healthcare is being asked to explain its position to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Lawmakers have had harsh words for McNeil. One New York Democrat told a McNeil representative that the company seemed to be a “deceptive and dishonest” company that has placed the health of many American citizens at risk. Johnson & Johnson representatives were also present at the hearing. The company has admitted there have been serious safety lapses at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, going so far as to call these lapses “unacceptable.”  But J & J continues to defend Mc Neil’s integrity.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pharmaceutical liability. The Reeves Law Group has been in business over 25 years with a 98.7% success rate. If you need an injury lawyer, contact us for a free consultation.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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One response to “Johnson & Johnson Drug Recall for Pediatric Drugs”

1. World Wide News Flash writes:
   

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   @ June 19th, 2010 at 10:11