Discovery of Impurities in Generic Drugs Concerns Philadelphia Parents
When pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson recalled a laundry list of the most popular children's liquid pain and allergy medicines on April 30, frightened Philadelphia parents were told that generic substitutes for children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl were safe to use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reassured Philadelphia parents that the drug recall affected only over-the-counter children's medicines manufactured by McNeil Consumer Healthcare for Johnson & Johnson. The federal agency said Philadelphia parents could safely substitute generic alternatives sold by pharmacies, grocery stores and discount chains for the recalled brand-name drugs. Apparently, the FDA was wrong.
This week, Perrigo, the country's largest maker of generic drugs, received a warning from the FDA citing significant manufacturing violations. Metal shavings, one of the dangerous contaminants found in recalled children's Tylenol and Benadryl, were discovered in ibuprofen tablets produced at Perrigo's Michigan plant. Fortunately, this time the defective drug was recalled before reaching consumers. Perrigo supplies generic equivalent drugs to many of the nation's biggest pharmacy chains, including Walgreens and CVS. While the FDA's warning letter did not specifically mention children's medicines, parents and Philadelphia personal injury attorneys are understandably concerned that contaminants found in one of the company's products may also be contained in other medicines manufactured at the firm's Michigan plant.
Consumer advocates are pushing the FDA to institute stricter pre-market quality control measures to insure that defective medicines do not reach consumers. Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hear testimony by Johnson & Johnson and FDA officials on what is becoming a disturbingly more frequent problem. The House committee is expected to investigate the cause of drug manufacturing defects and evaluate the response of federal regulators.
