Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Odalys Perez and on behalf of McNeil Consumer Products and Mr. James
E. Burke, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, I thank you all for being here today. I wish I
could say we asked you all to join us today for exciting news, but it is heartbreaking
to say, that the news I am about to share with you today is very sad. Early in the
morning of September 29th
•
Mary Kellerman from Elk Grove Village, who was just 12 years old became
sick and passed away at 7am.
•
Adam Janis from Arlington Heights, Illinois, also passed away that same day.
•
Stanley and Theresa of Lisle, Illinois, who went to their Brother Adam’s home
after learning about his death, also passed away. Stanley passed away that
same day and his wife Mary the next day.
•
Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, Illinois, Paula Prince of Chicago, Illinois, and
Mary Weiner of Winfield, Illinois passed away three days later.
The reason that we are the ones to share this news with you is because when
conducting their investigation, the Chicago Police Department has revealed that all
seven victims had taken one or our products: Tylenol extra-strength capsules.
Investigators believe that our products were tampered with and the tampering of
these product was most likely done at the retail stores. BUT, we will not shift blame
here. This product belongs to our company and it is our responsibility to address
this horrific incident. Therefore, we have issued a nation-wide recall of this product
and are pleading with the public to please discontinue using it.
At this time, we have established relationships with the Chicago Police
Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to search for the person or persons responsible for these unnecessary
deaths. Unfortunately, we do not any information we can share with you in regards
to details that may lead to the capturing of these criminals.
What we can share with you at this moment is that somewhere between after the
product being packaged and leaving our factories, the bottles were tampered with
and the capsules were laced with a lethal dose of cyanide. All of us at McNeil
Consumer Products and Johnson and Johnson share one common goal right now
which is protection our employees and all our customers. We plead with anyone who
may have information about these crimes to contact your local law enforcement.
Even the smallest detail will not be overlooked.
Our company is determined to assist with this investigation as well as do all we
can to assist in the prevention of anymore deaths to come from these tampered
products. At this time, we will be setting up toll-free numbers which will be manned
by our own employees to assist investigators with incoming tips, we will be sending
450,000 telex messages to doctors’ offices, hospitals and trade groups to avoid
further distribution of the product and will also stop all Tylenol advertising.
The loss of seven lives is not only tragic but uncalled for. Therefore we are taking
severe measures to make sure this does not happen again. As I address you all right
now, we have people at our company working on ways to protect you by protecting
our products. They are looking for better ways to seal the products so that they
cannot be tampered with and are also reviewing the possibility of changing our
products for example from capsules to tablets which will be harder to tampered
with.
Personally, as a mother, wife, and sister, I cannot begin to imagine the hurt and
sorrow the families of these seven victims are experiencing. But I do offer our
sincere condolences and want these families to know that all of us are with them in
their sorrows. Our promise is that we are doing our very best to solve this matter
and keep this from ever happening gain.
