Chairman Towns Invites FDA to Johnson & Johnson Hearing

WASHINGTON – Chairman Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) today invited Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein to testify during a committee hearing on Thursday, September 30, 2010, that will examine the circumstances surrounding Johnson & Johnson’s recall of over 135 million bottles of infant and children’s medicines produced by Johnson & Johnson/McNeil Consumer Healthcare, including such widely used products as Children’s Tylenol, Infant’s Tylenol, Children’s Motrin, and Children’s Benadryl.  The hearing will also examine the circumstances surrounding the "phantom recall" of a particular Motrin product, which became public as a result of the Committee’s hearing on May 27, 2010.

Additionally, Chairman Towns is asking the FDA to provide the committee with copies of its records relating to Johnson & Johnson’s "phantom recall" of Motrin, including all communications between Johnson & Johnson/McNeil employees and employees of the FDA from January 2009 to June 2009.

In announcing the September 30^th hearing, Chairman Towns stated, "This is about the safety of trusted medication that our children and grandchildren use. The evidence we have uncovered since our first hearing is extremely troubling."

Witnesses invited to testify include:

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein

Principal Deputy Commissioner

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Mr. William C. Weldon

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Johnson & Johnson

Ms. Colleen Goggins

Worldwide Chairman, Consumer Group

Johnson & Johnson