Does It Ever Stop–Johnson and Johnson Recall of Insulin Cartridges And an FDA Warning Letter on the Cordis Stents

There have been adverse events reported but luckily no deaths on the insulin cartridges. If you have one of their insulin pumps from the Animas unit, check it out and they truly are the big post child for getting bar codes on their drugs and devices. The recall represents about 5% of their product out there.

It was just last month that layoffs were announced at the Cordis division where the stents are manufactured. They won big last year in a lawsuit so we could all have “legally patented stents” but I care more about whether or not they work.

Johnson and Johnson Stent Device Company (Cordis) Merging Cardio and Endovascular Divisions-Lay Offs Coming

The number to be laid off was not given out but sales is one area that will be affected. I guess we still have plenty of stents to go around. Actually I wonder if they are working with SRI who has a project on going to find out why stents fail and I might guess this division could be on the list. At any rate this is a great post with lots of videos from SRI done by Robert Scoble and well worth watching.

SRI International–Where Science, Drugs and Device Technology Begin and Come Together-daVinci Surgical Robot (Intuitive Surgical) and Nuance Speech Recognition Began Here

Every week it seems to get worse and the number of products recalled grows. I guess it might be time to buy a new insulin company? That’s kind of what’s been going on in the knee and hip business with acquisitions. The CEO got a raise and is he worth it today? It makes you wonder if they can get their act together and being such a large conglomerate it’s not easy.

Counterfeit Johnson & Johnson OneTouch Products Investigation – One More Good Reason to Start “Tagging” Products for Consumers So We Can Scan for Authenticity

Again, Johnson and Johnson with all their products in so many different areas of healthcare could sure stand to build consumer, doctor and business confidence about now and it sure beats being the BP of the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry and my bar coding idea still stands. BD

NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), which has been beset by a seemingly endless stream of product recalls, has recalled hundreds of thousands of potentially leaky insulin pump cartridges that could lead to serious health problems and death.

It also has been warned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over manufacturing concerns for heart devices made at its Cordis unit's San German, Puerto Rico, facility.

J&J's Animas unit, the maker of the recalled cartridges and insulin pumps in which they are used by diabetics, said in a letter to patients last month that it found some of the cartridges can leak, resulting in delivery of less insulin than intended.