Quality improvements at Johnson & Johnson was the focus of last week’s news about the company. This week, unfortunately, it’s back to recalls and warning letters. Read more »

Pharmaceutical companies sometimes explain their unimpressive pipelines by saying that it’s become harder to discover and develop new drugs. Believing that the low-hanging fruit has been picked already, manufacturers are focusing on serving small patient populations. But a new paper suggests that the industry may be overlooking the potential of a particular class of drugs to treat tens of millions of patients. Read more »

Have you ever allowed yourself what you thought was ample time to drive somewhere, only to be delayed by a construction crew that was repairing the roads? Obviously, things don’t always work out as we plan them. Judging by its latest announcement about its facility ameliorations, Genzyme (Cambridge, MA) must have learned this lesson, too. Read more »

The welter of recent product recalls (and phantom recalls) initially got the US Congress talking about the adequacy of Johnson and Johnson’s (J&J, New Brunswick, NJ) manufacturing and quality-control operations. But lawmakers soon began asking questions about our line of defense against potentially harmful products: the US Food and Drug Administration. Read more »

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic version of the anticoagulant drug enoxaprin sodium injection on last Friday, July 23. Lovenox is the drug’s brand name, and it’s manufacturer, sanofi Aventis (Paris), was not happy about FDA’s decision. Read more »

Publicity about substandard or contaminated products usually lights a fire under pharmaceutical companies, which then race to address their compliance problems. But a new US Food and Drug Administration inspection report shows that, despite a stream of product recalls and a Congressional investigation, Johnson & Johnson (J&J, New Brunswick, NJ) has not gotten its house in order yet. And the company’s latest problems conceivably could make things hot for one of its partners. Read more »

Johnson & Johnson and its McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit have been all over the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Another recall was issued last week, as was news of a class-action lawsuit in the works against the company. The timeline below summarizes the recent events surrounding J&J/McNeil’s recalls and news. Read more »

Colorado is the country’s only state with an adult obesity rate below 20%. (Its rate is 19.1%.) More than two-thirds of states (38) have adult obesity rates above 25%, and rates increased in 28 states in the past year. These statistics were released this week in F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010, a report from the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This sobering news comes just in time for America’s 234th birthday, when millions of us will head to cookouts and celebrate with family, friends, and food. Read more »

McNeil Consumer Healthcare/Johnson & Johnson is expanding its Jan. 15, 2010, recall to include four lots of Benadryl and one lot of Tylenol, the company announced on Tuesday. The company said these products were “inadvertently omitted from the initial recall action,” which took effect because of consumer reports of a moldy, musty odor from the medication. As in previous recalls, McNeil said that the risk of serious adverse events is remote. Read more »

Yesterday, US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns sent a letter to Blacksmith Brands (Tarrytown, NY), a provider of over-the-counter drug and healthcare products, questioning the company’s chairman and CEO about the circumstances of its May 28 voluntary recall of four types of pediatric medications. Read more »