J&J's Weldon Asked to Come Before Congress on Recall
Johnson & Johnson CEO William Weldon has been asked by congress to testify on June 30. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
House lawmakers asked Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Officer Bill Weldon to come before Congress and explain the drugmaker’s actions in an inquiry into defective children’s medicine made by the company.
Weldon was invited to testify at the June 30 hearing in a letter today from New York Democratic Representative Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Lawmakers have been looking into J&J’s actions surrounding the April recall of more than 40 children’s medicines and subsequent allegations that the company hid efforts to do an unpublicized recall of defective Motrin tablets in 2009.
Lawmakers, led by Towns, increasingly have focused on the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company’s actions surrounding a plan to buy back the defective Motrin without fully notifying the Food and Drug Administration. Since the April 30 recall, J&J shares have fallen about 7.4 percent.
J&J spokesman Jeff Leebaw didn’t respond immediately to a phone call and e-mail asking whether Weldon would attend the hearing. Colleen Goggins, J&J’s worldwide consumer group chairman, testified at a hearing last month in Weldon’s place while the CEO was recuperating from back surgery.
To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in Washington at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page