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 »

Johnson & Johnson’s CEO William Weldon told The Wall Street Journal this week that the company will change its manufacturing operations and create a new position responsible for company-wide quality that reports directly to him. The company’s numerous recalls and manufacturing problems during the past year have resulted in a Congressional hearing and harsh words from FDA inspectors—in addition to shaken consumer confidence. 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 »

Lundbeck (Deerfield, IL) issued a voluntary recall of its anti-inflammatory drug NeoProfen (ibuprofen lysine) Injection last Friday because it contains visible particulates, according to a company press release. The recall will cause a temporary shortage of the drug because the company recalled both lots that are currently available to prescribers. Read more »

As Congress prepares to go into summer recess and begin the legislative season again after Labor Day, a subject that has been of ongoing concern for the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries has resurfaced: drug safety by reforming regulatory oversight for foreign drug-manufacturing facilities and related issues. The bill, the Drug Safety and Accountability Act of 2010, introduced this week by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), raises again the issue on how best to oversee an increasingly global pharmaceutical supply chain. 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 »

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Johnson & Johnson CEO Bill Weldon to testify at a second hearing to explore the company’s recent massive recalls of over-the-counter medication, according to reports this week (see Reuters and Bloomberg). Weldon was unable to attend the committee’s May 27 hearing because he was recovering from back surgery at the time. 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 »