In Brief

Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $22.9 million to settle a class-action complaint alleging it misled investors about manufacturing quality-control problems that caused widespread recalls of Tylenol products and other leading OTCs marketed by subsidiary McNeil Consumer Healthcare and led to a consent decree with FDA covering three facilities. According to the proposed settlement filed July 15 in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Trenton, J&J admits no wrongdoing concerning the claim that the plaintiffs suffered stock losses because J&J executives made misleading statements about the recalls. If approved, the settlement would cover buyers of shares between Oct. 14, 2008, and July 21, 2010. The firm in July 2012 resolved a similar shareholder complaint by agreeing to implement company-wide quality control oversight measures. The firm began returning the recalled products to stores shelves in 2012, and says in its latest earnings statement that its U.S. OTC sales are turning around ([A#05130722007]).

The fight finally goes out of USPlabs LLC, which voluntarily destroyed $8 million worth of DMAA-containing products July 2, FDA...