A recently filed lawsuit claims that Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, McNeil Consumer, made Children’s Tylenol with impurities that injured a child.
In recent years, companies have been accused of recalls which are not public-only stores and distributors are notified to return products. These are known as “quiet”, “stealth” and “phantom” recalls. Consumers who have ticking time bombs in their medicine chests, as well as the FDA, have no knowledge of the defective product. In the litigation a “Motrin Purchase Project” memo was uncovered that instructed the silent repurchase of specific products. Employees were told to “make this happen ASAP.”
Johnson& Johnson is the parent corporation for DePuy, the manufacturer of ASR metal-on-metal implants which were recalled in 2010. When problems first cropped up with metallosis, acute infections, failing implants, and other painful side effects, Johnson & Johnson accused doctors of implanting the ASR hip implants incorrectly. However, doctors openly denied such allegations and actually stopped using the product. In what now may appear to be a “quiet” recall, the J&J subsidiary, DePuy, stopped manufacturing the ASR implants, but continued to sell the remaining inventory. There was no public information with regard to the cessation of manufacturing. Only under steady suspicions did a public recall occur in August, 2010. Since that time, our senior lawyers have been litigating claims in state and federal courts.