Johnson and Johnson facing legal action over cold and flu medications

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A Brisbane law firm has launched a class action against Johnson and Johnson, claiming it has been selling medications it knows are not effective. The claim relates to phenylephrine which is found in popular brands of cold and flu medication.

Transcript

00:00Phenylephrine is very effective as a decongestant.

00:06So when people have colds or flus and you get a blocked nose or you get that sinus pain,

00:11phenylephrine is quite effective at addressing that if it's applied topically.

00:16But what's happened is there's another substance which is called pseudoephedrine, which is

00:20also very effective as a decongestant, and that was available in the market up until

00:27about 2006, and then there was restrictions placed on that because it was being diverted

00:32and used to manufacture other drugs like methamphetamines.

00:38So that's much harder to get now.

00:39So what the pharmaceutical companies did is they switched it out for the phenylephrine,

00:45but phenylephrine just isn't effective when it's taken as a tablet.

00:50And that is how it's being sold at the moment, and that's the claim that the law company,

00:57the law firm that's launching the class action has made, is that it is being sold in tablet

01:02form but it's not effective in tablet form as a decongestant.

01:06And what are the lawyers saying about the strength of the case?

01:09How confident are they that they're going to win this, and what's the possibility of

01:13compensation?

01:14Yes, so they are looking for people now to participate in the class action, so anyone

01:19who has bought and taken these products since 2005 can participate in the class action.

01:27All the way back to then?

01:29Yep.

01:30And so, you know, some people would have bought quite a few packets and been using it over

01:35several years.

01:36But you would have had to have kept your receipts, wouldn't you, if you were going to be part

01:40of this?

01:41They have said that you don't need to have the receipts, that I'm not quite sure how

01:46they're going to make sure that you have been a consumer, and the compensation would

01:52be that if they are successful in this pursuit, you could be compensated the cost of the medication

02:00that you bought.

02:01And have you seen any comments from the pharmaceutical company at this stage on this?

02:04No, we have contacted them, but we're yet to hear from them or the TGA about whether

02:09they're going to take any steps to further regulate these substances.

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