TYLENOL CRISIS
JOHNSON & JOHNSON
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational medical devices, pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded by two brothers James and Edward Mead Johnson in 1886. Later Robert Wood Johnson too joined them with the effective leadership that the company required. Antiseptic Surgical dressings were among their first products. Tylenol is an American brand of drugs advertised for reducing pain, reducing fever, and relieving the symptoms of allergies, cold, cough, and influenza. The active ingredient of its original flagship product is acetaminophen, an analgesic and antipyretic, it is commonly known elsewhere in the world by its international nonproprietary name, paracetamol.
Tylenol accounted for 17 percent of the company's net income in 1981. In 1982, Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol medication commanded 35 per cent of the US over-the-counter analgesic market representing something like 15 per cent of the company's profits. In October of 1982, Tylenol, the leading pain-killer medicine in the United States at the time, faced a terrific crisis when seven people in Chicago were reported dead after taking extra-strength Tylenol capsules. It was reported that an unknown suspect put 65 milligrams of deadly cyanide into Tylenol capsules, 10,000 more than what is necessary to kill a human. The incidents
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This points out to what extent a company is obliged to explore and correct the problems if detected. J& J had the moral and legal duty to respond to the problems and product recall. The corporate leaders were unwilling to risk the lives of any further individuals. The corporate leaders at the company also determined not to put the tablets back on the shelves until the company had developed tamper-proof production of the medication and its bottles. For that, the company fairly has earned longstanding honor for ethical corporate