J&J recalling more Tylenol from closed plant

Reported in Reuters

by Lewis Krauskopf —

Johnson & Johnson said it was recalling more than 700,000 bottles or packages of Tylenol and other consumer medicines made at a now-closed plant, the latest in a litany of recalls by the company.

J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit recalled one lot of Tylenol 8 Hour Extended Release Caplets, or 34,056 bottles, from retailers, the company said.

The company cited a musty odor that has prompted many other J&J recalls. The product was made at its Fort Washington, Pennsylvania plant before J&J closed the facility in April 2010.

Separately, McNeil added 10 lots of other products, amounting to 717,696 bottles or packages, to a wholesale level recall it initiated on January 14. Those products included various forms of pain reliever Tylenol, as well as allergy drug Benadryl and cough/cold medicine Sudafed.

In that recall, McNeil said it was taking precautions after a review of records found instances where equipment cleaning procedures were insufficient or cleaning was not adequately documented, although it said it was unlikely to have hurt product quality.

J&J has recalled more than 300 million bottles and packages of adult and children’s consumer medicines in the past 15 months. Although no injuries have been linked to the recalls, they have sullied J&J’s reputation, pressured its share price and sparked Congressional investigations.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by Andre Grenon)