House panel cites J&J response in recall probe

A U.S. Congressional committee investigating the recent recall of Johnson & Johnson’s children’s medicine is “deeply concerned” about the manufacturer’s cooperation, a committee spokeswoman said on Friday.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has been investigating J&J’s widespread recall announced in April of its Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec products for infants and children. The committee held a hearing on the issue last month.

“The committee is deeply concerned about Johnson & Johnson’s response and cooperation with our investigation,” committee spokeswoman Jenny Rosenberg said.

According to a report in The New York Times on Friday, U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns, the house committee’s chairman, said J&J had used delaying tactics in its dealings with the committee and in some instances had provided misinformation.

J&J denied the accusations, the paper said.

The conduct may compel the committee to take more aggressive action as it looks into drug quality and safety issues raised by the recall, Towns said, according to the report.

“We are not getting the kind of information and cooperation” that he would like, the paper quoted Towns as saying in an interview.

Rosenberg said Towns’ comments in the report were accurate.

J&J spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs told the paper that the company had been “very cooperative with the committee.” J&J has provided the committee with about 20,000 pages of documents, made its executives available for interviews and answered queries in a timely manner, she said, according to the report.

Reached for comment, Jacobs said she was quoted accurately in the story.

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NEW YORK (Reuters)