The Johnson And Johnson Story You May Have Missed

You've probably heard about the moldy Tylenol. And Benadryl. And Motrin. And Rolaids. Simply Sleep and St. Joseph's aspirin as well. Made some people sick it did. If I still had a cellphone I would have taken a picture of our over the counter shelves at the store after they pulled all the moldy Tylenol and the rest and plastered the recall notices up in their place. It would have made for a good addition to the pharmacy art picture series, but alas, I'm without a cellphone at the moment. Maybe forever. I've found I really don't miss it that much.

So how about instead of a wall of recall I post something from the Johnson and Johnson credo? They seriously have a credo. On their website they seem to be quite proud of it:

We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. In meeting their needs everything we do must be of high quality.

"...and not moldy." That's what I would suggest they add to the credo if I were a Johnson and Johnson shareholder.

Other than the mold loophole, however, I think the Johnson and Johnson credo is pretty solid. I like how they realize they should always put the interests of the people that use their products first. That makes me feel all safe and secure when dealing with Johnson and Johnson:

Federal prosecutors said Friday that health care giant Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks so nursing homes would put more patients on its blockbuster schizophrenia medicine and other drugs.

What? But......the credo......

In a complaint filed Friday, prosecutors said J&J paid rebates and other forms of kickbacks to Omnicare, the country's biggest dispenser of prescription drugs in nursing homes. Prosecutors allege Omnicare pharmacists then recommended that nursing home patients with signs of Alzheimer's disease be put on the powerful schizophrenia drug Risperdal...

...Its complaint alleges the scheme went on from 1999 through 2004, a period when J&J's sales of drugs through Omnicare jumped from about $100 million to more than $280 million. More than one-third of that was sales of Risperdal.

Well it does say in the credo that distributors of Johnson and Johnson's products must have an opportunity to make a fair profit. Johnson and Johnson really must take that credo seriously.

Wait. Fair profit. I guess that rules out kickbacks. Nevermind.

By the way, Rispirdal was never indicated for use in Alzheimer's or any other form of dementia, and shortly after the kickback scheme, the FDA required a black box warning stating that using Rispirdal this way increases the risk of death. I think if I were a Johnson and Johnson shareholder I might also suggest they add "and we won't make dumptrucks full of money by increasing people's risk of death, or we'll at least act like we're sorry when we do" to the credo.

Or else I would maybe introduce a resolution just declaring the credo to be bullshit. Because when you're incompetent in manufacturing and unethical in your business dealings, there's no use being a liar as well.

Especially when the lying adds nothing to the bottom line.