It is amazing what the human nose knows.  Well, those who originally detected a musty, moldy odor in pharmaceutical and healthcare products didn’t know where it came from.  But the odorous taints that resulted in product recalls were found to come from tribromoanisole (TBA) and trichloroanisole (TCA), and have been linked to treated wooden pallets from sources outside the US, the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) reported in a September PharmTech article, which summarizes the findings of the recent PDA Technical Report No. 55 on detecting and mitigating taints and odors from TBA and TCA. Read more »

Mistakes happen. In the pharma industry, these mistakes can lead to product recalls. Perhaps the medication is not the correct strength or maybe it became contaminated with metal fragments…

…and sometimes, entirely the wrong drug is found in the packet. In a case that has had UK media reports aflame, a prescription only antipsychotic drug was found in certain packets of a common pain medication that was manufactured by a completely different company. Is it a repackaging mistake? Or are more sinister intentions at work? Either way, it’s clear there are could be a few security holes in pharma’s distribution chains. Read more »

Beginning in September 2009, I watched with increasing surprise as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) recalled more and more of its products. As the recalls kept coming, my surprise turned to amazement that some of the company’s facilities (particularly the one at Fort Washington, Pennsylvania) could have been maintained and run in such an apparently haphazard way. As time went on, my amazement ebbed, and the continuing stream of recalls elicited little more than a shrug. Read more »

A recent poll on PharmTech.com asked readers whether FDA should have the authority to issue recalls for pharmaceutical products, and 86% of readers were in favor of allowing the agency to do so. Read more »

On Jan. 4, President Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. The bill expands FDA’s oversight of the food industry and grants the agency, among other things, the authority to issue mandatory food recalls (see back story).

PharmTech is asking readers in our current poll whether FDA should have the same power over pharmaceutical recalls. Right now, nearly 90% of respondents have said  “Yes.” Read more »

FDA is close to receiving the authority to mandate recalls of food under a new food-safety bill. Efforts are underway in the House to grant the agency this power for pharmaceuticals as well. Read more »

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a business unit of Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ), failed to ensure the quality of over-the-counter consumer products, according to the Form 483 report released by the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. Read more »

Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon admitted last week that the company “should have handled things differently” in regard to its “phantom recall” of Motrin. The second hearing of The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform focused on the “phantom recall,” in which outside contractors were hired to pose as customers and buy two lots of 8-caplet Motrin vials to remove them from store shelves. Read more »

Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO William Weldon is scheduled to testify at today’s hearing held by the The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Weldon is expected to answer questions about J&J/McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s April 30, 2010, recall of more than 135 million bottles of infants’ and children’s medication. Read more »

DePuy Orthopaedics, a business unit of J&J that makes joint replacements, announced a voluntary recall last week of two hip-replacement products, the ASR XL acetabular system and DePuy ASR hip resurfacing system. Read more »