Davin blog

Congress sets new hearing on huge J&J recalls

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional committee probing massive recalls of Tylenol and other Johnson & Johnson consumer medicines said it will hold another hearing on the matter after receiving "extremely troubling" new information about circumstances surrounding the recalls.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, during a hearing on May 27, blasted J&J manufacturing lapses that led to the string of recalls over the past year and said they could lead to civil or criminal charges.

The panel said on Thursday it will hold a second hearing on September 30 to examine J&J's recall of over 135 million bottles of infant and children's medicines produced by J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit -- including Tylenol, painkiller Motrin and allergy treatment Benadryl.

"This is about the safety of trusted medication that our children and grandchildren use," committee chairman Edolphus Towns said in a release on Thursday. "The evidence we have uncovered since our first hearing is extremely troubling."

The new hearing will also examine what the panel described as a "phantom recall" of Motrin, details of which became public as a result of the May hearing.

During that hearing, Towns cited a document it received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and said it showed that "rather than issue a public recall, McNeil allegedly sent contractors out to stores to buy the product back and told the stores 'not to mention' a recall."

J&J spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs in June disputed allegations McNeil had executed a phantom recall, saying the company sought to remove the Motrin "from a unique channel -- mainly convenience stores and gas stations -- "with as little disruption and consumer confusion as possible."

Colleen Goggins, worldwide chairman of the McNeil unit, appeared at the committee's May hearing, where she said J&J had not lived up to its reputation, but was taking drastic steps to clean up its manufacturing process and shake up management. But Goggins, who has headed McNeil for almost a decade and sits on J&J's executive committee, remains in charge of the consumer unit.

The House panel, in separate letters issued on Thursday, invited Goggins and J&J Chief Executive William Weldon to attend the upcoming meeting. Weldon did not testify at the earlier meeting, saying he was recovering from back surgery.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; editing by Andre Grenon)