After World War II, Ethicon's market share in surgical sutures rose from 15% to 70% worldwide.

In 1915, George F. Merson opened a facility in Edinburgh for the manufacturing, packaging and sterilising of catgut, silk and nylon sutures.

[12] On June 13, 2016, Health Canada issued a recall of Ethicon's Physiomesh Flexible Composite Mesh Product used for ventral hernia repair.

The company felt its basic polypropylene had already been approved and therefore it did not need to reapply for clearance for its Prolift kit.

However, in 2008, the FDA issued a Public Health Notification regarding reports of serious complications associated with transvaginal mesh devices.

[17] In one court case reported by Reuters, the plaintiff, Dianne Bellew, on whom the product had been implanted in 2009, said she was never warned about how the device could contract and erode, causing pain and scarring.