Overdose is the first full accounting of the damage done by acetaminophen – a medicine marketed for its safety – and the failings of federal officials to act as they confronted increasingly definitive evidence of its danger. Gerth and Miller’s first piece detailed the narrow margin for error in administering acetaminophen, a concern that first surfaced in the late 1970s. They established that McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the unit of Johnson & Johnson that makes Tylenol, had fought for decades against safety warnings, dosage restrictions, and other measures meant to safeguard users. They uncovered the company’s secret effort to create a safer version of acetaminophen, one never disclosed to the FDA, despite the agency’s keen interest in making the drug less dangerous. And, perhaps most importantly, the reporters meticulously documented how the FDA’s inaction continued for decades, even after experts on its own advisory committees strongly endorsed new safety requirements. A comprehensive review to set rules for acetaminophen, begun in the 1970s, still has not been completed, even as the number of accidental deaths associated with the drug have continued to rise.
Brianna’s Story, the second major piece in the series, used the tragic tale of the Hutto family to show how McNeil and the FDA had delayed acting for years to tackle a well-known medical mix-up that had resulted in an untold number of deaths and injuries to infants and children’s over the decades.
Flow, the third major piece, showed how a simple safety valve called a flow restrictor could prevent up to 10,000 visits per year to the emergency room for kids who accidentally get into liquid medicines. The story showed how the industry has moved slowly to install these devices over cost concerns, while the FDA and the Consumer Products Safety Commission has not acted aggressively to push the industry to use the devices.