Johnson & Johnson Company Under Investigation

McNeil Consumer Healthcare is being investigated by the Food and Drug Administration after numerous recalls of its products. Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl are popular children’s drugs that may be linked to hundreds of cases of serious complications. McNeil is a division of the fortune 500 company Johnson & Johnson.

In just seven months, the company has issued four separate recalls. McNeil’s poor quality standards have landed its parent company in hot water as well. J&J has a congressional hearing tomorrow to answer for McNeil’s mistakes. J&J has suspended all productions at McNeil’s Fort Washington plant. The plant makes all the liquid medicines marketed for infants.

McNeil claims they have taken internal action to rectify this situation. They have hired an outside consultant to help identify problem areas within the plant as well as solutions. They have also hinted at an internal reorganization of its employees but have not made any statements to clarify. New employee training practices along with better quality controls will also be implemented.

There are at least 775 cases of serious side effects that have been reported but no definitive link could be found to connect the cases to any of the recalled medicines. 30 deaths have also been reported but the FDA is not considering that a factor in their investigation. The FDA deemed the risk of a child experiencing adverse effects from products listed in the latest recall on April 30th as a remote possibility. Since the recall, hundreds of new cases have been reported.