Recalls of Benadryl, Motrin, Rolaids

Johnson & Johnson, which has been beset with recalls of Tylenol and other consumer products over the past year, has recalled almost 5 million additional packages of Benadryl, Motrin and Rolaids because of manufacturing “insufficiencies.”

J&J said the recalls, like many of the earlier ones, involved products made at its plant in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. The facility was closed earlier this year to fix quality-control lapses, including unsanitary conditions.

The latest actions involve 4 million packages of Children’s Benadryl Allergy Fastmelt Tablets in cherry and grape flavors. The allergy drug was distributed in the United States and other markets, a company spokeswoman said.

An estimated 800,000 bottles of Junior Strength Motrin Caplets, a painkiller, were recalled in the United States.

The Benadryl and Motrin recalls were initiated after a J&J review “revealed insufficiencies in the development of the manufacturing process,” J&J said.

The company spokeswoman declined to identify the specific manufacturing lapses. She said there was no indication that the products failed to meet quality standards.

In addition, about 71,000 packages of Rolaids antacid, in a cherry flavored extra-strength Softchews formulation, were recalled in the United States.

J&J said the Rolaids were made by a third party, and were recalled following consumer complaints about “an uncharacteristic consistency or texture, traced to crystallized sugar in the product.”

Unlike previous recalls, J&J did not issue press releases announcing the latest actions by its McNeil consumer healthcare division. It posted them on a company website.

“This is not a consumer-level recall; consumers do not have to take any action,” the spokeswoman said when asked why press releases were not issued.

She said all three new actions instead were “wholesale and retail level” recalls, which called instead on wholesalers and retail outlets to take action.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson in New York and Thyagaraju Adinarayan and S. John Tilak in Bangalore. Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and Robert MacMillan)

Huge Baby Children Product Recall Johnson & Johnson

A division of Johnson & Johnson is recalling 43 over-the-counter medicines made for infants and children — including liquid versions of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl — after federal regulators identified what they called deficiencies at the company’s manufacturing facility.

The voluntary recall, which was announced late Friday by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, affects hundreds of thousands of bottles of medicine in homes and on store shelves throughout the United States and its territories and in nine other countries — a vast portion of the children’s medicine market.

The Food and Drug Administration is advising parents and caregivers to stop using the affected products, although Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg called the potential for serious health problems resulting from the medications “remote.”

FDA inspectors had begun a routine inspection April 19 in the company’s Fort Washington, Pa., plant when they noticed “manufacturing deficiencies” that triggered the recall, said Douglas Stearn, a senior FDA official.

Stearn said the plant’s manufacturing process was “not in control,” a term regulators use to describe flawed procedures that affect the composition of medicine. Federal investigators do not know when the problems at McNeil began, but Stearn said that “this does go back in time” and that “we have to try to figure that out.”

While the FDA investigates, McNeil has suspended operations at the facility. In a statement, the company said: “Some of the products included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than is specified; others contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles.” It said the problems may affect “purity, potency or quality.”

Marc Boston, a McNeil spokesman, would not discuss the deficiencies cited by the FDA or say when the manufacturing facility was shut down. The company also declined to disclose the amount of products affected by the recall. In addition to the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, the medicines were sold in Canada; the Dominican Republic; Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates; Fiji; Guatemala; Jamaica; Panama; Trinidad and Tobago; and Kuwait.

A complete list of recalled products is on the company’s Web site.

McNeil received consumer complaints associated with some of the recalled medicines, but the company’s decision to pull them was not made on “the basis of adverse medical events,” said Boston, who declined to elaborate.

If a child who has taken any of the recalled medications exhibits any unexpected symptoms, parents or caregivers should contact a doctor, federal officials said. Consumers or health-care providers who experience problems connected to the recalled medicines are asked to contact the FDA.

As of Saturday, the FDA was not aware of any health problems related to the recalled products, said spokeswoman Elaine Gansz Bobo.

Parents and caregivers can use generic versions of the affected medicines; they are not affected by the recall. The FDA cautioned against giving adult versions to infants and children, noting the potential for serious problems.

This is at least the third major recall of Tylenol products by McNeil since 2008.

In January, McNeil recalled 49 types of Tylenol products made for adults and two Tylenol products made for children after consumers complained of a mold-like odor and of temporary and minor nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The company determined that some of the medicines had been contaminated by trace amounts of a chemical that is sometimes present on shipping and storage material.

In 2008, McNeil recalled 21 types of children’s and infants’ Tylenol liquid products, saying that although the products met internal standards, an unused portion of one inactive ingredient did not meet all quality standards

Cocaine laced with levamisole, causes fatal illness




Just say no to drugs. Here is another example of why drugs are scary. You don't know the guy who is cutting your drugs, you think he cares about your health? No. Check it out the coke is being cut with levamisole, which is used to treat treat intestinal worms in humans and animals. The problem is it is suppressing peoples immune system to the point where a common cold could kill you! If you did some coke and found yourself sick and with a fever after, I suggest going to doctor ASAP. So far they only found this in Canada, the thing is after following banned foods and items that make people sick, one thing I know is these things escalate and grow, like the melamine crisis.
Maybe just one dealer cut the coke with that crap. Lets hope so.



This is the official story from the Canadian Press.

Seven people in Alberta have developed a form of immune system suppression after consuming cocaine laced with a chemical compound, public health officials said Friday.

The individuals developed agranulocytosis, a condition that makes the immune system incapable of fighting off infections.

It makes common infections become serious, even fatal, quite quickly.

"We are advising anyone who develops a fever or other signs of infection and has used cocaine to seek medical attention quickly," Dr. Gerry Predy, Alberta's Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, said in a news release.

"Any skin abscess or lung infection that develops rapidly should also be treated immediately."

Officials have linked the cases to cocaine laced with levamisole, a chemical compound developed to treat intestinal worms in humans and animals.

The cases were reported in Edmonton, Red Deer, and in undisclosed locations in southern and northern Alberta.

Doctors in Alberta have been advised they should test and treat patients for this condition if they complain of a fever or other signs of infection after using cocaine.

Tags: agranulocytosis, cocaine, cocaine levamisole, immune system tainted coke, tainted cocaine