Alex Nussbaum reports: Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, expanded its recall of products possibly tainted with a wood chemical to include Rolaids, Motrin, Children’s Tylenol and St. Joseph’s Aspirin.
J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare division is pulling the medicines, along with some lots of Benadryl allergy tablets and Tylenol caplets, in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates and Fiji, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company said in a statement today. The “precautionary action” follows consumer reports of moldy, musty and mildew-like odors in some of the pills, the company said.
The drugmaker recalled all available lots of Tylenol Arthritis Pain caplets last month following complaints of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea after using the medicines. The odor comes from trace amounts of 2,4,6-tribromoanisole, a chemical used on wooden storage and shipping pallets, J&J said. The company said reactions to the pills were “temporary and non-serious.”
“The health effects of this chemical have not been well studied but no serious events have been documented in the medical literature,” the company said in its statement.
J&J said it ceased delivery of products on the pallets and ordered shippers to discontinue their use. A company investigation is continuing, in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, J&J said.
Customers can find instructions on returning and getting refunds for the medicines at www.mcneilproductrecall.com or by calling 1-888-222-6036.
{Business Week/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
