Yet Another Johnson and Johnson Recall, Yet Another Division

There is yet another product recall from Johnson and Johnson, with very similar characteristics and public relations script to previous product recalls.

Yesterday, J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical unit  recalled 11,700 bottles of the HIV/AIDS drug Prezista ©of products sold in Austria, Canada,  Germany,  Ireland and the UK.  The cause was attributed to trace amounts of the chemical TBA, believed to be leaching from wooden pallets. J&J noted it received four consumer complaints of musty or moldy odors.

Our most recent  Supply Chain Matters commentary for J&J involved a recall of select TOPAMAX© product produced by Ortho-McNeil Neurologics Division of Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc., another J&J division. The press release had very similar characteristics of smell and odor caused by TBA leaching.

The affected products in this week’s recall were produced at a J&J plant in Puerto Rico, similar to the multiple recalls involving the McNeill.  The J&J statement again notes that in January 2010, a number of actions to reduce the potential of TBA contamination, including requiring suppliers to verify that they do not use pallets made from chemically-treated wood.

Sounds very familiar and again raises the question of why after 17 months of investigation, incidents of TBA leaching still occur, and what other products sold to consumers still have this lingering  problem.

More importantly, as pointed out in the Bloomberg BusinessWeek April cover story dedicated to the current challenges of J&J, its CEO continues to believe that quality issues involving just a few plants have overshadowed activities involving over 120 plants, and fully expects that J&J will regain the trust of consumers and patients.

While there may be a belief that consumers have short memories, constant product recalls, even if motivated on the side of caution and safety, make regaining trust a bigger challenge.  The time is long overdue for J&J senior management to become very visible on communicating efforts to address systemic supply chain quality remediation.

Bob Ferrari

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