Tylenol, Motrin IB recall expanded

NEW YORK The McNeil Consumer Healthcare business says it is recalling 21 lots of over-the-counter drugs sold in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Fiji, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica. The drugs that are being recalled include Benadryl, Children's Tylenol, Motrin IB, Tylenol Extra Strength, Tylenol Day & Night, and Tylenol PM.

The New Brunswick, N.J., company made a large recall of those drugs and over-the-counter products, saying about 70 people were sickened by the smell. The odor was linked to a chemical in shipping pallets.

Johnson & Johnson says the recent recall applies to products made before the January recall.

Sales of Johnson & Johnson pain relievers are plunging amid these repeated recalls, with an eighth that expands callbacks for products like Tylenol and Motrin IB just announced.

That's an embarrassment for a company that set the standard on how to do it correctly when it rushed to pull bottles of Tylenol off the shelves in the early 1980s.

Market research firm SymphonyIRI Group says sales of J&J's pain reliever pills fell 56 percent in the month ending June 13, compared to a year earlier. Sales in the smaller category of liquid pain relievers, such as Children's Tylenol, fell 96 percent.

It's tens of millions lost and a big hit to its reputation.

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