Say you’re a gargantuan health-care conglomerate. A group of experts convened by the FDA votes at a high-profile meeting that one of your best known products — something like extra-strength Tylenol , say — should no longer be available without a prescription. What do you do? If you’re Johnson & Johnson, you take out full-page ads in national newspapers touting Tylenol as “the safest brand of pain reliever you can choose.” But you also point out that If “you take more than the recommended dose … you can cause serious liver injury.” As this morning’s WSJ notes in an analysis of J&J’s response, the company has long maintained a good reputation for crisis management — one forged a generation ago,

when it aggressively responded to a 1982 incident in which Extra Strength Tylenol was laced with cyanide. So far, the Obama-era FDA is taking a strict stance on over-the-counter drugs (witness the recent Zicam action ), which suggests some kind of FDA action on acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol, as well as lots of other OTC drugs). That means J&J will have to continue to react — and, the WSJ points, the company will have to strike a balance between marketing the Tylenol’s safety and acknowledging regulators’ concerns. Acetaminophen Bonus : For more on the drug, see this week’s Health Journal column. Photo: Associated Press

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How J&J Marketed Tylenol After Acetaminophen Hearings