WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are investigating an alleged “phantom recall” by Johnson & Johnson, in which the company hired a contractor to buy up defective painkillers instead of issuing an immediate recall.
The company’s handling of problems with Motrin tablets came to light last week at a hearing to examine ongoing quality issues with J&J medications. Lawmakers began investigating the company over its most recent recall of more than 130 million bottles of children’s medicine, some of which contained tiny particles of metal.
On Tuesday, lawmakers announced an investigation into the company’s handling of a quality issue with more than 88,000 Motrin packets distributed in 2008.
In a Friday letter obtained by The Associated Press, a House committee chairman asks J&J chief executive William Weldon to turn over information relating to the so-called phantom recall.
“It raises the question of whether Johnson & Johnson placed a higher priority on preserving the reputation of its Motrin brand than it did on consumer protection,” states the letter from Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
A memo obtained by congressional investigators instructs employees: “You should simply ‘act’ like a regular customer while making these purchases. There must be no mention of this being a recall of the product!”
