Documents show J&J bought Motrin before recall

Johnson & Johnson planned to remove potentially flawed lots of its Motrin over-the-counter pain reliever from store shelves by having contractors buy stocks of it, documents obtained by Reuters show. One memo under the logo of McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a unit of J&J, instructed a contractor identified as Inmar: "Do not communicate to store personnel any information about this product. Simply visit each store, locate the product and, if any is found, purchase all of the product." The Motrin recall came to light during a congressional hearing concerning J&J's widespread April recall of its Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec products for infants and children.

As part of its investigation into the April recall, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform began probing a recall of some adult versions of pain reliever Motrin. The documents obtained by Reuters refer to this recall taking place in 2009. During a May 27 hearing, Committee chairman U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns cited a document it had received from the Food and Drug Administration and said it showed that "rather than issue a public recall, McNeil allegedly sent contractors out to stores to buy the product back and told the stores 'not to mention' a recall. "After the FDA confronted McNeil about this, McNeil announced a recall of the affected products. This 'phantom recall' warrants further investigation by this Committee," Towns said.