Johnson & Johnson: Heart of the Matter – Are Their Products Safe?

USA Today writes an article that I thought would have the false premise of “Does the Tylenol recall pose a risk for consumers?” There is no evidence this latest and greatest Tylenol recall puts consumers in harm’s way. But then it asks the larger question: are Johnson & Johnson’s products safe? Here’s the argument:

“Clearly if a company has one recall, I could say ‘Well, that’s sort of an accident, just something that was very unfortunate.’ But I think Johnson & Johnson has had it happen over and over and over again. They don’t have their act together,” says Curt Furberg, a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. “I would be worried and try to go with other drugs, other pain relievers.” Furberg has served on the Food and Drug Administration’s Committee on Drug Safety and Risk Management.

That’s the key point, well-phrased. Does Johnson & Johnson have its act together and, if it doesn’t, does that make all of its products – or a least products where there appears to be the theoretical possibility that a defect could cause injury – a riskier bet for consumers?