U.S. health regulators knew that Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil unit was using a contractor to buy back potentially faulty batches of Motrin, though there was no formal agreement with the government, lawyers for the company told lawmakers.

Still, in a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, J&J’s lawyers said though the purchases of defective painkiller  from retailers were legal, “moving forward the company would handle things differently.” Get the full story »