next »

[Indigo]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/us-johnsonandjohnson-recall-idUSTRE75G52M20110617

Major Risperdal recall! Bill still takes this and I just weened Ty off of it 4 weeks ago. It says it is nontoxic but, what is it contributing to the brain and bloodstream that could still be dangerous in the long run?

J&J recalls 40,000 bottles of schizophrenia drugs
Fri, Jun 17 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said on Friday it has recalled 16,000 bottles of its Risperdal schizophrenia treatment and another 24,000 bottles of a generic formulation of the medicine due to consumer reports of odors in the products.

The company -- which has been beset over the past two years with recalls of consumer medicines, prescription drugs and medical devices -- said the latest two recalls stem from odors believed caused by trace amounts of a chemical called TBA found in pallets used to transport and store materials.

J&J last year recalled a number of over-the-counter drugs -- including its Tylenol and Motrin painkillers and its Benadryl allergy treatment -- because of the same musty or moldy odor linked to the chemical.

"While not considered to be toxic, TBA can generate an offensive odor and a very small number of patients have reported temporary gastrointestinal symptoms when taking other products with this odor," J&J said on Friday.

J&J said the recalled generic formulation of Risperdal, known by its chemical name risperidone, was sold by the company's Patriot Pharmaceuticals unit.

J&J, under close federal supervision, is trying to fix quality-control problems at its consumer medicines plants that have triggered most of the company's repeated recalls since late 2009.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

[Navi]

All these recalls make me wonder how bad something is supposed to smell before they suggest you don't ingest it. I had a couple of Spironolactone batches that smelled crazy bad. I took them anyway. Either the pharmacy got a new shipment that doesn't smell, or I am now used to my PCOS drugs smelling like cabbage.

[Indigo]

Exactly! I was wondering the same thing. Risperdal has no smell what so ever and tastes kind of sweet when chewed (my kids chew their meds and I taste the meds before giving them to them... so I know if I have to give it with Agave or honey) But, the one med recall we had a few years ago the second batch of pills were outright rancid smelling. UGH I took them back to the pharmacy and refused the brand completely and sure enough a couple weeks later they reported it was a "bad batch". We had already gone to the herbal route for those meds. Unfortunately they aren't covered by our meds plan oh well... it worked anyways. 

[evilavatar]

Johnson and Johnson has had several recalls this year for "musty" smelling products and no one should stop a psych med cold turkey without a doctors supervision, that being said there are a lot of meds that have recently come out as having issues.  The one that makes me the most scared is the drug for helping people quit smoking.  The company that makes it used the way they report adverse events that are already known to exist to delay report suicides to the FDA for quite a while.  The whole system of how they review medications sucks and almost no one cares.  It's a shame as they used to be more rigorous before approving drugs, but there are always some things like phen-fen and thalidomide that sneak into the market too.   

http://www.examiner.com/public-health-in-grand-rapids/johnson-johnson-recalls-risperdal-and-risperidone-tablets link explains what tba is

I guess my other concern after reading more and looking at some of the articles is how the hell does tba from shipping stuff and cause materials already in the medication that is sealed smell bad, unless it is the packing and pallets used to ship the raw chemicals.  If that's the case the people bringing them in probably wear protective masks and they can't smell the pallets anyway. 

[Indigo]

I guess my other concern after reading more and looking at some of the articles is how the hell does tba from shipping stuff and cause materials already in the medication that is sealed smell bad, unless it is the packing and pallets used to ship the raw chemicals.  If that's the case the people bringing them in probably wear protective masks and they can't smell the pallets anyway. 

I know a couple of families that this affected directly and they said the smell was like opening an old freezer full of rotten food! Pretty gross and noticeable once the bottle was home without even opening it. The pharmacist in one case said "Deal with it"... Neda was ticked! If it was my kid taking it I would have snapped too! Anyways, just passing info along as I know these drugs are used for a lot more than Autism

[Todd]

My fiancee just stopped taking Risperdal because it was causing her to lactate. Thank god she is now on Depakote and doing alot better.