McNeil's Fort Washington plant was closed in March 2010 after dozens of reports of manufacturing problems and warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It won't open again until $100 million in improvements are completed and the FDA and a federal judge give their approval.
"Johnson & Johnson makes statements about their credo of putting patients first, but it's simply not true," said Philadelphia attorney Joseph Messa, whose firm represents the family. "It is lip service, a marketing tool to tell the public and shareholders how wonderful they are."
In response, J&J said in a statement that while it empathized with the Moores, it disagreed with the lawsuit's contention that the company was hiding its product problems at the time of River's death.
"As the makers of Tylenol (acetaminophen), we are deeply concerned about all matters related to our medicines and we remain committed to providing safe and effective pediatric medicines," the statement said.
"While we are sympathetic to the pain and hardships suffered by the Moore Family, we must correct several of the allegations being made against our company in this suit. When McNeil Consumer Healthcare initiated several recalls for children's products in 2010, it communicated that information to the FDA, consumers, retailers and health care professionals. There were various reasons for those recalls, but they were not related to serious adverse events, as alleged in this suit."
On April 30, 2010, McNeil announced a voluntary recall of more than 136 million bottles of liquid infants' and children's products. A congressional hearing, which got considerable media attention, took place in May 2010.
