Gwinavere Johnston, CEO
Remember when Johnson & Johnson was such a revered company after they removed Tylenol from all drug and grocery shelves because someone had tampered with it, putting cyanide in some bottles? That was 1982.
Today, Johnson & Johnson is accused of knowingly using contaminated containers for Tylenol, Rolaids and several other over-the-counter drugs it manufactures. What’s more, the company is also under investigation for taking kickbacks for the sale of certain drugs. Here’s the Wall Street Journal summary:
“Federal prosecutors alleged that Johnson & Johnson paid one of the nation’s largest pharmacies serving nursing homes ‘tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks’ to increase sales of drugs, including blockbuster antipsychotic Risperdal.
Prosecutors charged in a complaint filed in federal court in Boston on Friday that J&J illegally paid Omnicare to get the pharmacy company to buy J&J medicines and recommend their use to nursing homes. Omnicare purchases nearly tripled to $280 million, prosecutors alleged.”
These charges make us wonder how a corporation can go from publicly idolized to being accused of and investigated for being dishonest on at least two fronts.
Can a culture or leadership change so easily shift a reputation from positive to negative? Does the CEO set the tone that in one era the company leads the way in product recalls and in another double deals and knowingly puts contaminated containers in the market?
Ah, reputation, how quickly it can change.