I clipped an article from the Courier journal in December, 2010 entitled, “Pfizer issues 4th Lipitor recall” that was released by the Associated Press. Although I had planned to focus on articles from the new year, a subsequent article about a recall of multiple products by Johnson & Johnson made the pair fair game.
The Lipitor recall was the most recent of a series reacting to an “uncharacteristic” odor. The smell is blamed on a wood preservative often applied to wood pallets that might have been used to transport products. The article quotes Pfizer that the use of such chemicals in the shipment of its products is prohibited. (Are we are left to assume that the chemical tainted the pills in some other as yet unknown manner?)
The article goes on to mention that over 360,000 bottles of Lipitor have been recalled so far; that Lipitor is the best-selling prescription drug in the US; that other drug companies such as Johnson and Johnson have had trouble with smelly pills; and that the risk of serious harm from this particular contamination is remote.
The story about Johnson and Johnson is quite interesting. As reported by Wall Street Journal and other sources, Johnson & Johnson recalled tens of millions of packages of over 40 different medicines in 2010. According to Reuters, at least one American Johnson & Johnson manufacturing plant “was closed to fix quality control lapses, including unsanitary conditions.” The recall has generated citations from federal regulators and criticism by congress because of the “phantom” nature of the recalls. This is a far cry from the actions of McNeil during the Tylenol poisoning incident in 1982 which brought the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary praise for its bold and definitive response.
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