I’ve been on vacation for the last few weeks and was considering giving J&J a pass on this one. Sure, they issued their latest Tylenol right before the Thanksgiving holiday, hoping that consumers wouldn’t find out about it – its par for the course in terms of J&Js recall strategy (and is hardly the kind of ethical behavior one might expect from J&J). I’ve extensively covered all of the dozens of J&J’s recalls over the last year to the point that it seems that I’m beating up on the once-responsible drug maker. But in the end, I felt I needed to write about it. J&J is now refusing to issue press releases on their recalls. J&J is refusing to publish their recalls via the recall Twitter channel. J&J hasn’t blogged about ethics, responsibility, integrity or any of these problems in months. J&J’s strategy seems to be – ignore it and hope that consumers don’t find out about our latest Toxic Tylenol mess.
So, here’s the story – back before Thanksgiving, J&J issued yet another recall for Tylenol over “labeling concerns.” This recall comes just days after the Benadryl and Motrin recall of two weeks ago and accompanies recalls for other J&J products. J&J has now issued dozens of recalls (I’ve completely lost track of what we’re up to). It’s also important to note, that the a recent FDA inspection of the Puerto Rico plant found numerous additional serious violations (and that these violations all occurred AFTER J&J’s CEO William Weldon promised that the company had turned the corner and was focusing on product quality). While J&J management continues to scapegoat its problems on the much-maligned Fort Washington, PA plant, I’ve been arguing for over a year that J&J’s problems are systemic to nearly every J&J plant around the world. J&J has adopted a culture where quality control can (and actually should) be subverted. And senior management at the highest levels gloss over product contamination and quality problems in the interest of stock price.
So, here’s the story – back before Thanksgiving, J&J issued yet another recall for Tylenol over “labeling concerns.” This recall comes just days after the Benadryl and Motrin recall of two weeks ago and accompanies recalls for other J&J products. J&J has now issued dozens of recalls (I’ve completely lost track of what we’re up to). It’s also important to note, that the a recent FDA inspection of the Puerto Rico plant found numerous additional serious violations (and that these violations all occurred AFTER J&J’s CEO William Weldon promised that the company had turned the corner and was focusing on product quality). While J&J management continues to scapegoat its problems on the much-maligned Fort Washington, PA plant, I’ve been arguing for over a year that J&J’s problems are systemic to nearly every J&J plant around the world. J&J has adopted a culture where quality control can (and actually should) be subverted. And senior management at the highest levels gloss over product contamination and quality problems in the interest of stock price.