Despite the recent recall of thousands of Johnson & Johnson’s powder bottles from the US market due to the discovery of traces of asbestos, Sri Lankan pharmaceutical and medicines authorities will take no action on Johnson’s imports to Sri Lanka. National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe told The Sunday Morning Business that until asbestos traces were found in Johnson’s imports to Asia, it was absolutely unnecessary for Sri Lanka to take precautions or additional safety measures. Dr. Jayasinghe added that even the withdrawal from the US market is not an issue that should cause panic as it was a decision that was voluntarily taken by Johnson’s itself. When we contacted Johnson & Johnson’s India, which overlooks the Sri Lankan operations, a spokesperson for the company told us that Sri Lankan consumers had absolutely nothing to be concerned about as the issue was with a single batch in a completely unrelated market – the US – and that the products consumed in Sri Lanka are manufactured in India. On 18 October, Johnson & Johnson’s announced that it was voluntarily recalling one batch of its baby powder in the United States due to contamination with asbestos. The recall was made following the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovering chrysotile asbestos contamination which is no greater than 0.00002% in a powder bottle that was purchased online. The said powder bottle was shipped to the United States last year and one among the #22318RB batch which had 33,000 powder bottles. The company advised consumers who purchased powder bottles from the above batch to discontinue using the product and request a refund from the company. According to Forbes, after news of the recall broke, the company’s stock plummeted 6% and as of Wednesday morning had only recovered less than 1%. Shares of the company’s stock were trading down nearly 4% Friday morning. Issuing a statement on 18 October, soon after the announcement of recall, the company noted that it has immediately initiated a rigorous, thorough investigation into this matter, and is working with the FDA to determine the integrity of the tested sample, and the validity of the test results. However, the company noted that at this early stage of the investigation it cannot confirm if cross-contamination of the sample caused a false positive or whether the sample was taken from a bottle with an intact seal or whether the sample was prepared in a controlled environment or whether the tested product is authentic or counterfeit. The release further noted that as recently as last month, there were no asbestos found in its products. On 14 December 2018, Reuters reported that the US drugs and consumer products group knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its baby powder, leading to tests in several countries, including in India. Following this, in January this year, Sri Lanka halted imports of Johnson & Johnson baby powder until the company proved its product was free from cancer-causing asbestos. According to international sources, last year, Johnson & Johnson paid $ 4.7 billion to 22 women who alleged the company’s baby powder had caused them to develop ovarian cancer, with six of the women eventually dying from the disease. Johnson & Johnson, at the moment, deals with over 11,000 complainants contending their baby powder and Shower to Shower products developed cancer. A website on asbestos expected this number to double in 2019. According to international media reports, overall, the company is facing more than 15,000 legal proceedings from consumers claiming its talc gave them cancer and a 2018 New York Times investigation revealed that Johnson & Johnson was aware of possible asbestos contamination in talc for at least 50 years but did not warn consumers.