WASHINGTON: The Congress democrats are probing the alleged "phantom recall" by Johnson & Johnson. The company had allegedly hired a contractor to buy the defective painkillers instead of recalling the medicines immediately.
Problems pertaining t o Motrin tablets were exposed during the Congressional hearing, which was reviewing the quality issues with J&J medications.
The lawmakers are also conducting probe into the recall of over 130 million of bottles of children’s medicine after tiny part of the metals were found.
They announced that they would conduct probe into the quality issues with the bottles that were sold in 2008.
A House committee chairman recently wrote to J&J's CEO William Weldon, seeking information about the 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 Chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
A memo titled "Motrin Purchase Project," 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!"
According to reports, the firm had recalled the bottles after in July 2009 after Food and Drug Administration came to know about the contractor’s activities.
Meanwhile, J&J spokesman Jeffrey Leebaw said in an e-mail that the company would “respond appropriately to the committee's request."
