[13] The company published "Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment", a guide on how to do sterile surgery using its products, and in 1888, distributed 85,000 copies to doctors and pharmacists across the United States.

[14] The first commercial first aid kit was designed in 1888 to support railroad construction workers, who were often hundreds of miles from medical care.

The kit included a washcloth; safety pins; sterile sutures, sponges, and gauze; antiseptic soap; an obstetric sheet and ligatures; flannel to wrap the baby in; and a chart for keeping birth records.

[5]: 191  In 1933, Robert Wood Johnson II wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, calling for a federal law to increase wages and reduce hours for all American workers.

Robert Wood Johnson II was appointed head of the Smaller War Plants Corporation in Washington, D.C. His work ensured U.S. factories with under 500 employees were awarded government contracts.

Under his leadership, the company recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol, relaunched the product with a triple tamper-evident seal, and urged consumers not to use if tampered with.

[68] In November 2015, Biosense Webster, Inc. acquired Coherex Medical Inc. expanding the company's range of treatment options for patients with atrial fibrillation.

[111] JJI focuses on early-stage, life science, and technology innovations to advance the company's research and development pipeline.

[113] There are 4 JJI Innovation Centers located in London,[114] Shanghai, Boston (Cambridge),[115] and the San Francisco Bay Area.

There are 13 JLABS incubators located in the Bay Area (San Francisco and South San Francisco),[116] Belgium (Beerse), Boston (Cambridge and Lowell), Houston (TMC),[117] New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, Shanghai, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.[118] The Innovative Medicine (formerly known as pharmaceuticals) segment is focused on six therapeutic areas: immunology (rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis); infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS); neuroscience (mood disorders, neurodegenerative disorders and schizophrenia); oncology (solid tumours including lung cancer, prostate cancer and bladder cancer, and hematologic malignancies); cardiovascular, metabolism, retina (thrombosis and diabetes), and pulmonary hypertension (pulmonary arterial hypertension).

[140] Within a week, the company pulled 31 million bottles of capsules back from retailers, making it one of the first major recalls in American history.

[145] Products shipped to Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guam, Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Fiji were included in the recall.

Metal debris from wear of the implant led to a reaction that destroyed the soft tissues surrounding the joint, leaving some patients with long term disability.

Ions of cobalt and chromium – the metals from which the implant was made – were also released into the blood and cerebral spinal fluid in some patients.

[159] In 2011, J&J settled litigation brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and paid around $70M in disgorgement and fines.

[162] In May 2017, J&J reached an agreement to pay $33 million to several states to settle consumer fraud allegations in some of the company's over-the-counter drugs.

[180] In October 2019, the company and its subsidiary, Ethicon, Inc. reached a settlement with 41 states and the District of Columbia, with no admission of liability, in a suit alleging deceptive marketing of transvaginal surgical-mesh devices.

The lawsuits focus on claims that the talc-based powder is contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen commonly found in places where talc is mined.

[192] The company was forced to release internal documents with 11,700 people suing J&J over cancers allegedly caused by baby powder.

The documents showed that the company had known about asbestos contamination since at least as early as 1971 and had spent decades finding ways to conceal the evidence from the public.

[194] A large study performed in 2003 found that ovarian cancer risk increased from a baseline of 0.0121% to 0.0161% in people who reported regularly using talc in the genital area.

[196] The company's CEO, Alex Gorsky, declined to appear at a United States congressional hearing on the safety of J&J's Baby Powder and other talc-based cosmetics.

J&J spokesman Ernie Knewitz said that the subcommittee had rejected the company's offers to send a talc testing expert or a J&J executive in charge of consumer products.

[197] In response to declining demand, J&J announced it would discontinue the sale of talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada in 2020, but would continue to sell it in other markets.

[198] The Supreme Court of Missouri refused to consider J&J's appeal of a $2.12 billion damages award to women who blamed their ovarian cancer on its talc-based products.

Representing the affected women during the trial, Mark Lanier remarked that the Supreme Court's decision sent "a clear message to the rich and powerful: You will be held to account when you cause grievous harm under our system of equal justice under law.

"[202][203] J&J had argued that the combined claims in the St. Louis trial were too different, yet the short jury deliberation and identical payouts were, therefore, a violation of the company's due process and also that the high punitive award was unconstitutional.

[206] In 2023, the number of lawsuits regarding talc-based baby powder has exceeded 40,000 as more claimants come forward to say that the company's product caused them to have cancer.

[216] In October 2019, the company agreed to a settlement of $20.4 million with northeastern Ohio's most populous counties of Cuyahoga (containing Cleveland) and Summit (Akron).

The settlement allows the company avoidance of a trial accusing J&J and many other pharmaceutical manufacturers of helping to spark the US opioid epidemic.