Johnson & Johnson (J&J)said it is recalling more than 60,000 bottles of Tylenol Extra Strength caplets because of a musty odor that has led the company to withdraw dozens of other products since last year. While the risk of serious medical problems is remote, the odor has been linked to a chemical that can cause temporary and non-serious gastrointestinal symptoms.

The chemical known as 2,4,6 tribromoanisole, used to treat wooden shipping and storage pallets. The company pulled 40,000 bottles of Risperdal, a schizophrenia drug, on June 17 because of the chemical’s musty odor, which also led the company to recall shipments of the HIV drug Prezista and the seizure medicine Topamax this year.

The 60,912 bottles of Tylenol recalled today make up one lot of the product and were manufactured in February 2009, J&J said in the statement.

The year 2010 was also a difficult year for giant drug provider. After facing several class action law suits over recalled children’s medications, the problems continued as an announcement was made public a recall of commonly used OTC drugs after a problem with quality control in their McNeil manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania.

Tylenol, which controls 35% of the pain killer market, Benadryl, Sudafed and Sinutab have been recalled on the wholesale level after production records demonstrated poor cleaning procedures a lack of proper documentation of maintenance procedures before the plant was completely shut down in April of 2010. That closing lead to a huge recall of over 40 types of medications including Benadryl and Motrin.

In July 2010 five children’s medication lawsuits were filed by six different consumers in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Illinois. The lawsuits accused Johnson & Johnson of fraud and racketeering, saying that the company failed to recall the drugs properly and did not do enough to allow consumers to recover losses. A Food and Drug Administration report said its inspectors found thick dust and grime covering certain equipment, a hole in the ceiling and duct tape-covered pipes at the Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, facility that made 40 products recalled.

In 2010 and in 2011, Pfizer recalled bottles of Lipitor after reports of an odor linked to the packaging bottles. Pfizer said the bottles were supplied by a third-party manufacturer and determined the cause to be exposure of the bottles to low levels of tribromoanisole as they were shipped or stored.

Sources: Johnson & Johnson and CNN

Written by Sy Kraft