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Tylenol Lawsuit

In: Business and Management

Submitted By teresa073
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Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Lawsuit
BUS670 – Legal Environment of Business
5-28-2012

Abstract

There have been several lawsuits brought against Johnson & Johnson Company in the past years. There was a wrongful death case filed by the parents of a 2 month old that died after taking Concentrated Tylenol Infant Drops. When we talk about a wrongful death case, someone’s life was taken resulting from the willful or negligent act of another person or persons. After this case was filed against Johnson & Johnson, the FDA started working with the company to address its systemic quality issues (Dooren, 2010). According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Principal Deputy Commissioner, over the last several years, they have had growing concerns about the quality of the company’s manufacturing process.

Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Lawsuit

There was a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a 2 month old that died after taking Concentrated Tylenol Infant Drops and there was a recall of children’s Tylenol. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed that the use of prescription and over-the-counter cough and cold medicines in children younger than 6 years of age had been tied to serious side effects, even death (Dooren, 2007). Cough and cold products are made by several manufacturers including a unit of Johnson & Johnson. Some cold products are marketed as “infant” drops. Most product labels tell parents to consult a physician in obtaining the proper dose for younger children (Dooren, 2007).

In this particular case, the 2-month old infant died in April 2010, just three days after he was given concentrated Tylenol Infant Drops (Benson, 2012). There were tests done that concluded that the medication had been contaminated with bacteria that was contaminated (Benson, 2012). Because of the infant’s death, there was a recall of more than 40 types of infants’ and childrens’ medications across the U.S. and the plant where the contaminated product came from was investigated by the Food and Drug

Administration (Benson, 2012). It was said that this particular plant had previously been cited for quality-control violations (Benson, 2012).

A number of consumer complaints were issued to this plant and the companies failed to investigate them. The infant’s family accused the drug manufacturers of trying to cover up widespread contamination (Benson, 2012). There were reports that training and lab facilities at the site were found to be lacking. The infant’s family also claimed that Johnson & Johnson hired a private company to buy up the entire contaminated stock from the retailers to prevent the information from getting out. This type of behavior is called “stealth recall” which prevents consumers from learning about the potential harm that the product could cause (Benson, 2012).

After this case was filed against Johnson & Johnson, the FDA started working with the company to address its systemic quality issues (Dooren, 2010). The FDA considered additional enforcement actions that may have included criminal penalties against the Johnson & Johnson unit that makes Tylenol (Dooren, 2012). According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Principal Deputy Commissioner, over the last several years, they have had growing concerns about the quality of the company’s manufacturing process. The world-wide chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s consumer group outlined steps the company was taking to address the manufacturing problems and apologized to parents for the concern and inconvenience caused by the recall (Dooren, 2012). This became a major concern for parents and grandparents because anytime they had to give their children or grandchildren medicine, they expected it to be safe and help the children get better.

Johnson & Johnson created a new regulatory and compliance committee (Loftus, 2011). Because of the lawsuits, a lot of setbacks developed, tarnished Johnson & Johnson’s reputation, and hurt its financial performance (Loftus, 2011). The new regulatory and compliance committee was created to monitor oversight of compliance and quality issues, including Johnson & Johnson’s obligations under various settlements of government investigations of improper conduct (Loftus, 2011).

When we talk about a wrongful death case, someone’s life was taken resulting from the willful or negligent act of another person or persons. This area of tort law is governed by statute. Wrongful death statutes vary from state to state (legal-dictionary, 2012). In order to sue for wrongful death, it has to be proven that the acts of the defendant were the proximate cause of the descendant’s injuries and death. Determining the amounts of damages in a wrongful death case requires the taking into account of many variables.

When I read about what happened to this infant after been given the Tylenol, I thought about my daughter. I can remember being told not to buy the Infant Tylenol because of a recall. She had a fever and I had run out of the Tylenol and I was in the store looking for some more. The shelf didn’t have any, so I asked a person that was working and she told me that the infant and children’s Tylenol was taken of shelves. I ended up buying a store brand fever reducer.

In conclusion, I think that if the FDA hadn’t gotten involved, Johnson & Johnson wouldn’t have recalled the Infant and Children’s Tylenol. The particular plant that the contaminated product came from should have been closed down since it had been known to have a lot of quality-control violations through the years. There was a lot of good evidence in this case against Johnson & Johnson. The FDA stayed involved to resolve the quality-control issues. Johnson & Johnson created a new regulatory and compliance committee to monitor oversight of compliance and quality issues. It was said that consumers had been complaining about this plant and nothing was done about it. Johnson & Johnson is a well-known company for its many products it manufacturers, so I would think that they wouldn’t make mistakes like this. This made me not want to buy Tylenol anymore after the recall. I am pretty sure a lot of other parents felt the same way. When it comes to your child or children, you want to keep them safe.

References

Benson, C. (2012). Infants Family Files Tylenol Lawsuit after Death. Retrieved April 30, 2012 from http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/tylenol.html.

Dooren, J.C. (2007). FDA Cites Cold Medicine Risks for Children. Wall Street Journal, pp. A.4 – A.4. Retrieved May 9, 2012 from http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 399071590?accountid=13171.

Dooren, J.C. (2010). FDA Considers Enforcement Action Against J&J. Wall Street Journal (online), pp. n/a-n/a. Retrieved May 9, 2012 from http://search.proquest. com/docview/346112088?accountid=13171.

Legal-Dictionary (2012). Wrongful Death. Retrieved May 18, 2012 from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/wrongful+death.html.

Loftus, P. (2011). J&J Board Created Panel in Response to Lawsuits. Wall Street Journal (online), pp. n/a-n/a. Retrieved May 9, 2012 from http://search.proquest. com/docview/877776070?accountid=13171.

Loftus, P. (2012). J&J Sees Health Care on Upswing. Wall Street Journal (online). pp. n/a-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1001017423? accounted=13171.

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