Last week, Oregon Attorney General John Kroger sued health care conglomerate Johnson & Johnson for allegedly leaving eight-capsule packets of defective Motrin on Oregon store shelves for months after learning the capsules weren’t dissolving properly and were thus ineffective in relieving pain as promised.
Here’s the best part, though- the suit says that instead of ordering an official recall, Johnson & Johnson hired a contractor to go to stores across the country and purchase the defective Motrin themselves. No release to the media or the buying public, no swift and transparent action to right their wrong.
They did end up conducting a formal recall… more than a year after discovering they had faulty products on store shelves.
The Oregon Board of Pharmacy released a copy of the whistleblowing fax they received in June 2009, alerting the Board to what contractors had been asked to do on behalf of the company:
“You should simply ‘act’ like a regular customer when making these purchases. THERE MUST BE NO MENTION OF THIS BEING A RECALL OF THIS PRODUCT! “
Wow. And what exactly do you think the contractor was instructed to do if a person, not someone paid by Johnson & Johnson but an actual paying customer, reached for a bottle of that same defective Motrin in the store while in the presence of that contractor? Do you think they were told to inform the consumer that the product was actually defective? I’m guessing not.
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