Infant Motrin Recall of 200,000 Just the Latest Woe for J&J

This is just the latest in a series of recalls for healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J). This week, the company recalled about 200,000 bottles of concentrated Motrin Infant drops Original Berry Flavor. The company’s McNeil unit made the decision after tiny particles of plastic were found in some bottles of a different product made by the same third-party supplier of the pain reliever, ibuprofen.

The plastic could be as small as a poppy seed, reports Science World.

The four recalled lots come from the company’s manufacturing plant in Beerse, Belgium and may contain plastic flakes of PTFE which is used in Teflon coatings. J&J says this is just a precautionary move and no children have been harmed. Basically, it doesn’t know if the plastic debris is in the Motrin, just that it was found in a different product during manufacturing.

The news release didn’t tell us the name of the other ibuprofen product but the suspected Infant Motrin lots are listed as: DCB3T01, DDB4R01 and DDB4S01. The UPC Code is 300450524157; Case UPC code is 30300450524158. Consumers may ask the company for a refund at 1-877-414-7709.

Since 2009, the conglomerate has been involved in about 40 recalls, so many that J&J had to commit to angry shareholders who filed suit that it would improve quality control.

Most recently the recall of the DePuy ASR metal total hip replacement in 2010 will cost the company billions of dollars as litigation proceeds. J&J has removed most metal components from its hip replacement inventory. OneTouch VerioIQ blood glucose meters, K-Y Jelly, Children’s Tylenol made in South Korea, the Adept hip implants and millions of oral contraceptives have also been removed from shelves.

Other issues that have concerned shareholders recently include J&J’s alleged kickback payments used to increase sales, and the off-label marketing of drugs.

Because of the quality control issues, in 2010 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took the unusual action of taking over Johnson & Johnson’s Fort Washington, Pennsylvania manufacturing plant because of contamination problems. This plant manufactures popular over-the-counter brands such as Tylenol, Zyrtec and Motrin and led to the recall of more than 136 million medications.

The Pennsylvania facility as well as three others which manufactured most of the recalled products made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, are now operating under a consent decree, reports Pharmalot – and the company has established a committee of board members to oversee quality control problems.