Johnson & Johnson, the world’s biggest health-products maker, recalled about 4 million packages of Children’s Benadryl allergy tablets and about 800,000 bottles of junior-strength Motrin caplets, citing manufacturing lapses.
“When the manufacturing process was developed, it was not done as thoroughly as it should have been,” Bonnie Jacobs, a J&J spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview today. “There is no indication that the product does not meet quality standards.”
J&J’s McNeil unit withdrew more than 40 types of children’s over-the-counter liquid medicines in April, forcing a suspension of production at a manufacturing plant and reducing 2010 sales about $600 million, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company said in July. The U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating J&J’s handling of the recall and a separate incident involving Motrin tablets.
While the McNeil unit of J&J posted a notice Nov. 15 about the recall on the Benadryl website, it didn’t issue a press statement, Jacobs said. The action “is not being taken on the basis of adverse events,” or safety issues, Jacobs said.
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