'Shocking' conditions at Tylenol plant

'Shocking' conditions at Tylenol plant

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The quality and safety violations that led to the shutdown of a Tylenol plant were extremely serious, and could lead to tough action by regulators on drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.

Later in the article...

On May 1, McNeil recalled some 50 children's versions of non-prescription drugs, including Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) has suspended production at the plant.

The FDA report listed 20 violations, which include 46 consumer complaints on the recalled products. Johnson & Johnson has not revealed details of those complaints.

However, Congress has opened an investigation into the recall, and lawmakers have given both Johnson & Johnson and the FDA a May 17 deadline to hand over details about the consumer complaints and any other FDA inspection reports on the Fort Washington facility.

On Friday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that it would hold a hearing on May 27 to examine the recall. The panel said it had invited J&J Chief Executive William Weldon to testify.
0:00 /4:49J&J CEO on the recall: I'm sorry

The most damning, according to Lebo, was the charge that the plant "does not maintain adequate laboratory facilities for the testing and approval (or rejection) of components of drug products."

Read the full article here

Looks like the FDA actually did something for a change... except it seems it took them a bit too long to respond if you ask me. This story (as foretold within the headline) is not all the shocking to me. Conditions within these plants that create the medicines our loved ones take are usually not too good; looking at this report alone shows you how many recalls there were, and how many times the plant did not respond to consumer complaints, in fact there were 46 of them received from June 2009 to April 2010.

Is it me or is that way too long before the FDA stepped in to actually do something about this? I hope this plant gets shut down for good and those responsible for all of this are fined to the point of bankruptcy - they don't deserve to run a business, let alone a plant that produces medicine for children.

I can't imagine having a child and watching them suffer from some sort of bad reaction to contaminated medicine I'd given them

Iwork in retail management, fora cvs. 2 weeks ago or so, we got a noticeot pull ALL tylenol products off the shelves, excep the CVS brands, those so far, are oktotake/use. The same thing with Zyrtec products too, those have been recalled.
We are giving refunds,on ANY tylenol product, and sedning them back on our weekly delivery for credit.
If im not mistaken, J+J is a Procter and gamble item, isnt it>? If you look at the ingriedients in thier baby shampoo's its frightening actually. Its all PEG stuff, and otehr known toxic chemicals..and they call it tear free*
thats efffin sick!!!!

In the senates 'wisdom' they don't want you to buy drugs from Canada, because they might be unsafe,

but these same drug companies bought cheap, deadly toxic heparin from China & killed people with it.

It ain't about the safety, it is about money & marketing monopolies.

reply to post by ziggy1706


Thanks for sharing that, and it is disgusting that their slogan is so far from the truth. My family uses Zyrtec actually so I think I'm going to go and throw away whatever bottles we have until I know it is safe to buy them or maybe I'll just get the generic store brand equivalent.

Originally posted by slank
It ain't about the safety, it is about money & marketing monopolies.

Very true. It all comes down to big pharma and $$$ - we all know that we are better off sick then healthy, and what better way to allow the masses to get sick than to hide it in plain sight? The FDA's lack of ability to get rid of such poisons within our medicine, and their disobedience to the people of the United States puts us all at great risk every time we decide to pop an Advil for our headache. Unfortunately I'm plagued with migraines and frequently use Advil which for the time being I am able to trust is OK to take; who knows however what is in the other everyday type medicines people take that are OTC (over the counter).

This plant was allowed to produce horrible products for a long time without reprimand and that is just unacceptable by ANYONE'S standards.

Looks like I'm reading the Jungle by Sinclair