In case you thought Johnson and Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit couldn’t possibly have any more medicines to recall, late yesterday they announced they’re pulling more Tylenol as well as Benadryl, Sudafed, and Sinutab products - about 43 million packages in all – due to problems with their manufacturing quality control, including insufficient equipment cleaning. Plus, McNeil is recalling 4 million packages of Rolaids Multi-Symptom Berry tablets because of incomplete labels.

Although the company said that the recalls are a precautionary measure after their review found lapses in good manufacturing practices, the recall affects only the “wholesale level” and no action is required by consumers, who the company says can continue to use the product. But given other choices, including generics, we’re not sure we’d risk it. The total number of recalled McNeill products has now reached approximately 228 million units. Astonishing!

Those recalls fall on the heels of other bad news in the press about J & J’s McNeil business.  First, The New York Times reported that the State of Oregon is suing McNeil because the company failed to disclose that problem products were being secretly pulled from store shelves. The so called “phantom recall” was conducted in early 2009 by outside contractors who bought back defective Motrin bottles without the company disclosing the problem to the public.

Adding to the company’s woes, the Food and Drug Administration announced this week that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is being overused. Too much, the FDA says , can lead to liver damage. They now recommend that prescription combination tablets and capsules contain no more 325 mg, while some products previously contained as much as 750 mg per pill. That recommendation is likely to result in decreased usage of Tylenol.  For more on this see our Health Blog.

The only bright spot for McNeil and J &J, perhaps, is that some of their acid-stomach and headache remedies are still OK to take.  We’re guessing they’ll need them as they face the trying task of cleaning up their manufacturing practices.