WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson failed to respond to a deadline for information on a "phantom" drug recall, a U.S. congressional spokeswoman says.
Jenny Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., said Monday evening Towns didn't receive an answer to his query by the 4 p.m. deadline, ABC News reports.
Towns, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wanted more information about what he described as a "phantom recall" of Motrin caplets that was carried out last June by an outside contractor.
Towns said Johnson & Johnson hired the contractor to buy up Motrin caplets secretly instead of announcing a recall, ABC reported.
In July 2009, the company began officially recalling the caplets that were thought to be dissolving improperly, resulting in possible adverse effects.
The oversight committee came upon the alleged stealth recall while looking into a separate recall of some pediatric medicine brands.
