Wasden announces multi-state settlement with Johnson & Johnson on marketing of over-the-counter drugs
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden today announced a $33 million multi-state settlement with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson regarding misrepresentations in marketing drugs including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Sudafed between 2009 and 2011. Idaho will receive just over $430,000 from the settlement, to resolve alleged violations of the Idaho Consumer Protection Act.
“It’s important that companies like these play by the rules, especially when we trust our health to their products,” Wasden said in a news release. “This settlement helps hold the companies in question accountable for their actions.”
The settlement resolves allegations against McNeil-PPC, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. It allegedly unlawfully promoted its drugs as complying with federally-mandated current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), despite FDA findings that some McNeil manufacturing facilities did not comply with those standards between 2009 and 2011; the deficiencies led to widespread recalls for an array of the firm’s over-the-counter drugs.
In the settlement, the company agreed to the payments and to comply with consumer protection laws, without admitting any wrongdoing.