Johnson & Johnson recalls more Tylenol
pharmafile | October 21, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â J&J, JJ, Johnson & Johnson, McNeil, Tylenol, pharma recalls, product recallsÂ
Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit has announced yet another recall affecting its Tylenol painkiller range.
The latest recall – the twelfth announced by the company in the last 12 months – is a much more limited affair as it affects only around 128,000 bottles of Tylenol 8-Hour caplets, a mere handful in the context of the millions of products already withdrawn from sale.
The products were distributed in North American and Puerto Rico, said the company. Once again the reason given is a musty smell attributed to the presence of 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA), a fungal metabolite of the related chemical 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP), which is used as a flame retardant and wood preservative.
It has been speculated that earlier recalls of J&J products, as well as a recall of 191,000 bottles of Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowerer Lipitor (atorvastatin) earlier this month, could be attributed to the leaching of TBA into medicine bottles from wooden pallets used during shipping and storage.
“This voluntary action is being taken as a precaution and the risk of adverse medical events is remote,” said J&J in a statement which coincided with the release of its third-quarter results. “To date, observed events reported to McNeil for this lot were temporary and non-serious,” it went on.
J&J’s third quarter results
The recall continues to impact J&J financially, with third-quarter consumer product sales of $3.6 billion down 10% compared to the same period in 2009 thanks to the recalls and the suspension of manufacturing at McNeil’s manufacturing facility in Fort Washington, Philadelphia.
However, a return to sales growth in the group’s pharmaceutical division meant that as a whole J&J posted revenues $15 billion, a decline of just 0.7%, and operating profit up marginally to $4.2 billion.
J&J’s chief executive William Weldon said progress was being made to reopen the Fort Washington facility and that the transfer of production to other facilities means that the company has been able to restore the supply of some of the recalled medicines.
Phil Taylor
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