J&J Revamping Tylenol Plant, Slashing Jobs There

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday said it aims to revamp a now-closed Pennsylvania plant that made Tylenol and other consumer medicines that have been recalled in recent months due to quality-control lapses and eliminate 300 of the factory's more than 400 employees.

J&J said other company plants will help produce medicines once made at the factory as it is retrofitted, and reaffirmed that most of the products are unlikely to become available before the end of 2010.

The company, in a statement, also said it earlier on Thursday had given the U.S. Food and Drug Administration an expected "comprehensive action plan" that listed other proposed means of correcting quality shortcomings at its factories. They have led to four major recalls of J&J consumer medicines in the past year that have tarnished the reputation of the company and its iconic brands.

The company said its McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit had already begun taking a number of significant steps to enhance quality controls, and will use outside experts to go further. One of the biggest recalls came on April 30, when J&J took 40 widely used children's medications off the market, including painkillers Tylenol and Motrin and allergy treatments Benadryl and Zyrtec.

The plant in Fort Washington, Pa. was closed after FDA inspectors said they found thick dust, grime and contaminated ingredients in the facility.