BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and 42 other
State Attorneys General have reached a $33 million settlement with Johnson
& Johnson, bringing $586,408 to Louisiana and resolving allegations that
the health care giant sold nonprescription medicines that did not meet federal
quality requirements.
“My Public Protection Division works tirelessly to ensure companies that deceive Louisiana consumers are held accountable for their actions,” said General Landry. “This resolution does just that and should serve as a reminder for those doing business in our State to follow manufacturing safety standards.”
It was alleged that Johnson & Johnson – acting through their McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division – unlawfully promoted some popular over-the-counter drugs as complying with federally mandated current Good Manufacturing Practices even though the FDA found that some McNeil manufacturing facilities were out of compliance between 2009 and 2011. McNeil’s alleged quality control lapses resulted in recalls of drugs including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, St. Joseph Aspirin, Sudafed, Pepcid, Mylanta, Rolaids, and Zyrtec.
The states joining Louisiana in this settlement were Pennsylvania, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“My Public Protection Division works tirelessly to ensure companies that deceive Louisiana consumers are held accountable for their actions,” said General Landry. “This resolution does just that and should serve as a reminder for those doing business in our State to follow manufacturing safety standards.”
It was alleged that Johnson & Johnson – acting through their McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division – unlawfully promoted some popular over-the-counter drugs as complying with federally mandated current Good Manufacturing Practices even though the FDA found that some McNeil manufacturing facilities were out of compliance between 2009 and 2011. McNeil’s alleged quality control lapses resulted in recalls of drugs including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, St. Joseph Aspirin, Sudafed, Pepcid, Mylanta, Rolaids, and Zyrtec.
The states joining Louisiana in this settlement were Pennsylvania, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.