The House on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating whether Johnson & Johnson avoided a recall of its product Motrin by having a private contractor buy the product off store shelves. The pharmaceutical company and medical device manufacturing company has been rocked by drug recalls as well as medical device product defects the last few years including the DePuy ASR hip replacements that were recently recalled due to defects.
The issue involving Motrin has the FDA and J&J in a “he said she said” standoff. J&J officials maintain that they kept the FDA informed of the Motrin purchases while the FDA claims they were never informed of such a decision.
A hearing is scheduled for September 30 and the committee chair, Rep. Edolphus Towns plans to call J&J CEO William Weldon to testify as to what actions were taken and if the company was trying to evade a recall of its popular drug Motrin.
The Motrin problem began in November 2008 when J&J discovered that certain Motrin pills were not dissolving properly due to a manufacturing problem in the company’s San Juan Puerto Rico plant.
Besides the DePuy hip recall and this latest problem with Motrin, the company has also faced scrutiny and criticism for manufacturing defects that forced the recall of its popular Tylenol products.