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Johnson & Johnson is a Disgrace

May 14, 2010 – Comments (5) | RELATED TICKERS: JNJ

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has been in the news quite a bit lately for its recall of children's drugs including Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl for quality issues.  As someone with two small children who have had to consume these products from time to time I was somewhat disturbed by this news, not to mention the fact that I probably had to throw fifty to a hundred bucks worth of the stuff in the trash.

However, now that additional information on the problems with these products is coming to light, I am absolutely disgusted with JNJ.  If you have children, you definitely have to take a look at the following article that details the horrible conditions that existed at the company's plant, 'Shocking' conditions at Tylenol plant.

Here's some highlights:

"It's absolutely shocking," said David Lebo, a professor of pharmaceutical manufacturing at Temple University in Philadelphia, referring to the Food and Drug Administration's May 6 inspection report on the facility in Fort Washington, Penn., operated by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil division.

"This inspection report is pretty close to being the worst I've seen. It suggests that basically the FDA found an issue with almost every system at the plant,"  

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the plant "does not maintain adequate laboratory facilities for the testing and approval (or rejection) of components of drug products." 

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The report also said that McNeil failed to follow up on 46 consumer complaints received from June 2009 to April 2010 "regarding foreign materials, black or dark specks."  

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The FDA also said that lack of proper controls in the manufacturing process led to some batches of infant's Tylenol being "superpotent," or having too much of some ingredients. [so much for the recommended dosage that we all carefully measure out for our kids]

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The FDA inspectors further detailed dusty and filthy conditions at the plant, including "incubators with a large amount of visible gray and brown dust/debris, large hole in the ceiling and thick dust covering the grill inside a filtered cabinet." 

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In addition, the FDA said some drums used to transport raw materials to the Fort Washington facility were contaminated with a bacteria identified as B. cepacia. 

Johnson & Johnson is producing name-brand medication in the United States of America.  This isn't some third world country or a company that makes cheap products.  This sort of crap is either a result of terrible greed, ineptitude, or laziness or a combination there of on Johnson & Johnson's part.

I don't know what sort of impact, if any it will have on the company's stock. It probably won't hurt the behemoth much, heck it survived people putting cyanide in its main product years ago, but I am sickened enough by this situation to close my CAPS outperform call on the company in protest.

When one purchases more expensive "branded" medication, they spend more of their hard-earned money than they have to out of love for their children under the assumption that it is better for them.  It turns out that some of the "cheap" generic versions of these drugs are probably better quality than the expensive stuff.  It will be a cold day in he-two-sticks that I buy JNJ medication for my family again.  I'm going to try to avoid the company's other products as well.

I hope that the government throws the book at them, forces them to completely close this plant and pay a huge fine.  They've earned it.  

Shame on you Johnson & Johnson.

Deej