The Tynol Tampering Incident

Over the past two decades, pharmaceutical companies have quietly invaded American’s homes by introducing new miracle drugs such as OxyContin into their daily lives. Purdue Pharmaceuticals introduced OxyContin saying it was a miracle cure for pain that would last twelve hours. However, “even when doctors began reporting that patients were complaining

As the brand manager for Allround cold medicine, there were many decisions regarding product formulation, strategy, line extensions and product launches over the company’s last 10 periods. The brand was focused on remaining a profitable, mature product family within the cold medicine category, but also maintaining a premium brand image.

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

In order to discuss this case, it is also important to know about McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and the producers of famous medicine "Tylenol". Tylenol was their best selling product; it was very much trusted by their consumers and they also earned huge profits from its sales in United States.

As the Communications Coordinator for the Cobbs National Drug Manufacturer (CNDM) there is rising concern around recent events from the media exposure on the adverse effects one of our nationally advertised medications has had on the Chief-of-Police. According to Athena du Pre, PhD, “Lack of communication can lead to duplicated efforts, costly (and sometimes life-threatening) delays, frustration, and wasted time” (Du Pre, 2005, p. 289) and our goal is to maintain open communication. Today’s meeting will help identify several ways to deliver our message. Today’s meeting will help to brainstorm

When J&J realized that their Tylenol capsules caused the deaths of four Chicagoans, they immediately initiated a recall of all Tylenol products, and spread the news by any means possible. Cars with sirens and loudspeakers drove through the city and suburbs of Chicago, urging residents to throw away any Tylenol capsules they might have. Schools were contacted, and they instructed students to bring all Tylenol products to the school nurse. News flashes were initiated to warn people of the Tylenol danger as well, and all stores were instructed to remove Tylenol products from their shelves. Removing the products was a gutsy move, not only because it was dangerous to the company by recalling so much products, but there was also a fear that the killer

Back in 1982 the well known medicine Tylenol was poisoned. The owners of the company took immediate action to the public telling about the dangers about the tylenol. “Johnson & Johnson issued a national alert warning the public. With in a few days, it had set up a hotline that people could call for information. ”(Lewis & Braun 14) With the company setting up a hotline and doing a national alert it shows how to successfully respond in a crisis because this company did everything so

The EpiPen device automatically injects a drug called epinephrine, which reverses potentially deadly allergic reactions. It is the only device of its kind available in the United States. Millions depend on carrying the device at all times. For decades the EpiPen was available at a low cost until the Mylan Company purchased it in 2007. Since then, the price has risen over 400% creating a public backlash of media reports, social media petitions, and politician’s calling out Mylan executives to explain the reason for the price raise. Lack of compassion and appearance of greed has tarnished the public image of the company. Mylan has begun looking for ways of rebuilding their image by releasing compensation to the public in the form of generic cheaper EpiPens and payment assistance to eligible patients, but it might be too little too late in this current ongoing communication crisis event.

"Cyanide-Laced Tylenol Kills Seven People, September, 1982. " Historic U.S. Events, Gale, 2012. Student Resources in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2359030233/SUIC?u=edmo59604&xid=6a9f6073. Accessed 7 Feb. 2018.

This happened on two occasions, the first in 1982 and the second in 1986. These episodes could have been devastating to the McNeil company by drastic decrease in consumption of the Tylenol products. The McNeil company rallied to the situation to counter this possible decrease in consumption. According to "Laurels: The National Business Hall of Fame", Tylenol's share in the one billion dollar analgesic market commanded thirty-five percent of the market before the 1982 incident. At the time of these episodes, consumer trust was damaged and market share decreased to seven percent. By February 1983, Tylenol had regained a twenty-four percent share of the market(Diary of an Amazing Comeback). In the 1990's, Tylenol again reached its thirty-five percent of the market which at this time accounted for a two billion dollar market(Laurels: The National Business Hall of Fame, Fortune). By regaining their share of the market, this demonstrated that the consumers had faith in the McNeil company's ability to produce safe and trustworthy products, i.e. Tylenol, for their comfort and happiness.

Tylenol, an over the counter prescription product from Johnson & Johnson, was one of the top brands in the analgesic market. Within the company, it was also a large income earner that commanded nearly 15% of the company’s total profits. That being the case, the 1982 crisis was not only a big blow to the brand, but also to the company as a whole. The crisis jeopardized the company’s existence; putting at risk a multi million investment which the investors had a lot of faith in. Irrespective of whether the crisis was due to malicious acts from ill motivated criminals or not, the company had to act swiftly to counter the legal issues which were ensuing and mitigate huge impending losses. It was really a trying moment for the top management of Johnson & Johnson and more so to the CEO, James Burke, who faced the toughest test of his managerial career during this time. Though the crisis was amicably solved, there were some legal issues that were imminent and some valuable lessons learnt from the episode.

Sealed bottles were tampered with and extra-strength Tylenol capsules were replaced with cyanide-laced capsules. These bottles were then resealed and placed on shelves of pharmacies in the Chicago area. Seven people died as a result. Tylenol was called upon to explain why its product was killing people.

Case Study #3 Tylenol: In 1982, seven people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol due to an unknown suspect lacing the capsules with cyanide after the products reached the shelves. In the immediate aftermath, Tylenol's commanding 37% market share dropped to just 7% nationwide, despite the problem being contained to the Chicago area. Tylenol was not responsible for the tampering of the product, but to maintain the product's reputation, Johnson & Johnson pulled all of the Tylenol from the shelves, absorbing a loss of more than $100 million dollars. Tylenol was successfully reintroduced with tamper-resistant packaging, discounts, and sales presentations to the medical community. The brand survived due to swift action and effective public relations from

an unknown suspect put 65 milligrams of deadly cyanide into Tylenol capsules. It was assumed

This research paper will explore the fraud at Tyco and focus primarily on accounting and auditing issues related to the fraud. One thing worth noting about this case is that fraudulent financial reporting was not at the core of the fraud, which was the case with majority other big frauds at the time, such as Enron and Waste Management. On the contrary, fraud consisted of misappropriation of assets, and fraudulent financial reporting came as a consequence of trying to hide misappropriation of assets and the use of corporate money for personal benefit.