TRENTON, N.J. – With Johnson & Johnson’s once-golden reputation tarnished by 11 recalls of medicines, contact lenses and DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. hip implants in as many months, its chief executive says he knows the company let consumers down.
J&J plans a public campaign to help rebuild their trust but not until after about 40 recalled non-prescription medicines are back on store shelves early next year. In the meantime, the company is also doing everything possible “to make sure this never happens again,” CEO Bill Weldon told The Associated Press on Friday.
The maker of trusted brands including Johnson’s No More Tears baby shampoo, Tylenol pain reliever and Neosporin antibiotic ointment, has announced repeated recalls since late last September. Nine involved non-prescription medicines – including Children’s Benadryl and Tylenol Arthritis – made by its McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit.
The biggest was an astounding April 30 recall of 136 million bottles of children’s and infants’ liquid medicines that might have contained tiny metal particles or have too much active ingredient.
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons. They’ve been very painful,” Weldon said.
No serious injuries have been linked to any recalled products.
But Congress, federal prosecutors and the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation are looking into the handling of the recalls, including a “stealth” one in 2008 in which J&J allegedly paid a third party to secretly pull Motrin packets with questionable potency off store shelves.
This week, the world’s biggest health-products maker received a warning from the FDA about illegal marketing of some hip implants by Warsaw-based DePuy and two more recalls: one involving two other hip implant products and one involving contact lenses sold in Asia and Europe.
“We’re doing everything we can any place in Johnson & Johnson to make sure this never happens again,” Weldon said.
He said the company has checked quality standards at its 120 factories, realigned its supply chain to make sure “best practices” are shared and set up a new structure with executives focused solely on quality.
“I think the best thing we can do is get (products) back on store shelves for the people that need them,” Weldon said. “From there we will have to go back and earn our reputation.”
