If the shuttering of a Tylenol plant gave Johnson & Johnson a headache, this most recent investigation into a factory that makes Pepcid, Immodium and Mylanta is surely giving the company a case of sour stomach (get it? Medicine jokes!).The Lancaster, Pa. plant was issued a Form 483 by the FDA earlier this month, and now a new report indicates 12 violations of good manufacturing processes. [More]
Pharma Medicine
10 Stores With Cheap Generic Drugs
By 7.20.10
Cheap generic drugs are good for when you’re between jobs, between insurance, or if you’ve just got a prescription drug plan that is costing you too much money. You might find, as Wise Bread did, that a generic version of your medication actually causes fewer side effects in addition to being more cost-effective. [More]
Another Johnson & Johnson Plant Under Investigation
By 7.17.10
The hits just keep on coming for Johnson & Johnson — on the heels of the news that the company would be closing down and laying off some 300 employees at the Philadelphia-area factory that was churning out musty, yucky pills, another plant in Lancaster, Pa., failed to receive a clean bill of health after an inspection by the Food and Drug Administration. [More]
Factory That Made Moldy, Barfy Recalled Tylenol Closes For Upgrades, 300 Lose Jobs
By 7.16.10
Johnson & Johnson announced late yesterday that they will lay off most of the employees of the Philadelphia-area factory that produced the controversial musty, stinky pills recalled earlier this year. Staff have been on full pay and benefits since the plant shut down in April, but the controversial (that is: filthy) facility will close down for upgrades until some undefined point in 2011. [More]
FDA Panel Split On Vote To Remove Avandia From Shelves
By 7.14.10
Today, an advisory panel met to discuss and vote on whether or not to recommend if the FDA should pull diabetes drug Avandia from the market over a possible link to increased risk of heart attacks. In the end, the voting leaves no definite direction for how the FDA will ultimately come down on the issue. [More]
Adventures In Crazy Birth Control Pricing
By 7.14.10
Rebecca experienced the wrath of the birth control pricing gods on a Walgreens visit, discovering that the generic version of her pill, Yaz, was suddenly more expensive than the name-brand version. She braved her insurer’s customer service hell to track down some answers but only got more confusion. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Hit With Fraud And Racketeering Lawsuits Over Tylenol Recalls
By 7.12.10
The only thing more certain than stinky Tylenol this year is that there would be a lawsuit from consumers at some point, and now it’s happened. Five times, in fact. They’ve been filed against Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit and seek class action status, and accuse J&J/McNeil of failing to properly recall the bad drugs and of failing to adequately compensate consumers. [More]
More "Moldy, Musty" Tylenol Recalled
By 7.9.10
That stink coming from your medicine cabinet may just be Tylenol, Motrin or Benadryl, according to the latest recall from Johnson & Johnson. The company is recalling 21 additional lots of drugs, including batches of Tylenol, Children’s Tylenol, Benadryl and Motrin. The company says “the risk of adverse medical events is remote.” [More]
Viagra, Cialis Users Too Busy Doin' It To Use Condoms
By 7.6.10
Judging by the Viagra and Cialis ads on TV, users of these drugs spend their time playing novelty covers of “Viva Las Vegas” in the garage with their buddies or taking baths outdoors with their wives in separate claw-foot tubs. But no, apparently men take these pills so they can have sex, which they’re doing a lot of; oh, and they’re also catching a lot of STDs. [More]
FDA To Farmers: Enough Already With All The Antibiotics
By 6.29.10
After coming to the conclusion that farmers have gone a little hog-wild with their use of antimicrobials — not to cure animals of disease, but to spur animal growth — the FDA has kindly asked them to cut it out because it’s just going to make the rest of us sicker. [More]
Shuttered Tylenol Plant Had Troubling Pattern of Problems
By 6.24.10
Should Tylenol have been recalled sooner? FDA inspection reports going back to 2003 paint a queasy picture. [More]
Try New Tylenol Cheesesteaks
By 6.21.10
Curing a headache shouldn’t be a headache. That’s why there’s new Tylenol Cheesesteak Rapid Release pain-relievers. It’s a delicious Philly Cheesesteak whose savory juices have been doused in the Paracetamol you love, but without the hassle. Plus a cheesesteak! [More]
Special Lovemaking Coffee Can Cause Sudden Drop In Blood Pressure, Lovemaking
By 6.21.10
If you want to be a passionate lover, or at least a noticeably hyper one, of course you should drink a lot of coffee before hitting the sheets. That’s just common sense. But the FDA says that a specially marketed aphrodisiac coffee, Magic Power Coffee, can interfere with prescription drugs and cause a dramatic loss of blood pressure. [More]
Female Answer To Viagra Just Can't Stand Up To Testing Says FDA
By 6.17.10
Sad news for the world of gettin-it-on today: A drug that had been intended as a female analog to Viagra has not only not shown promise in tests, but has actually demonstrated some quite non-sexy side effects. [More]
More Moldy Barfy Benadryl And Tylenol Recalled
By 6.17.10
Oopsy-poopsies! Johnson and Johnson forgot to recall four “lots” of Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs and one lot of Extra Strength Tylenol Rapid Release Gels along with the dozens already recalled in Jan. J&J took the pills off the market after consumers complained they smelled moldy and in a few cases, caused vomiting and diarrhea. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Hired Fake Shoppers To Buy Up Bad Motrin, Avoid Public Recall
By 6.14.10
Ever since the FDA and Congress started asking Johnson & Johnson to explain why it keeps recalling medicine, there have been references to an unpublicized “recall” that happened in November 2008. Last month, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a J&J executive swore that the company didn’t mean to mislead anyone. It turns out that wasn’t exactly accurate: Bloomberg has obtained emails from J&J’s company, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, that show executives knew the secret recall would trigger an FDA reaction if the agency got wind of its full scope. [More]
Study Links Popular Blood Pressure Meds To Increased Cancer Risk
By 6.14.10
Because heaven forbid a medicine can do something good without some sort of nasty side-effect, a newly released study claims that a popular class of medications used to regulate blood pressure may also slightly increase the takers’ risk of getting cancer. [More]
NYC CVS Caught Dumping Old Prescriptions On Sidewalk
By 6.13.10
One would think that, after paying out over $2 million in 2009 for improperly disposing customers’ prescription info, CVS would have a tighter lid on how they handle this sensitive information. If so, someone at a CVS pharmacy in Manhattan didn’t get the news. [More]
