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Johnson & Johnson Recalls Even More Medicines

Just when it seemed pretty much impossible for Johnson & Johnson to recall even one more over-the-counter remedy, the company has shown it can.

The latest withdrawals, stemming from quality problems at a Pennsylvania factory, covers various batches of Tylenol 8 Hour, Tylenol Arthritis Pain, and Tylenol upper respiratory products made before last April. Also affected: some lots of Benadryl, Sudafed PE, and Sinutab.

For more information and to see at a glance the remarkably broad array of medicines affected since trouble surfaced at the plant run by J&J's McNeil division last year, go to the company's dedicated recall .

The company has completed an investigation of quality problems at McNeil , maker of Tylenol and other over-the-counter medicines. The results showed, among other things, that the most recently recalled products may have been made on equipment that was dirty.In a statement, J&J said "an extensive review of past production records found instances where equipment cleaning procedures were insufficient or that cleaning was not adequately documented."

Even so, J&J figures it's not likely the quality of the medicine's was affected. Still, it took the precaution of recalling.

Oh, there is one other recall to report. The company is also pulling some lots of Rolaids Multi-Symptom Berry Tablets because the packaging is wrong. The affected batches didn't comply with a persnickety labeling requirement.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Hensley edits stories about health, biomedical research and pharmaceuticals for NPR's Science desk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has led the desk's reporting on the development of vaccines against the coronavirus.