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The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson
by Gardiner Harris
An explosive, deeply reported exposé of Johnson & Johnson, one of America's oldest and most trusted pharmaceutical companies—from an award-winning investigative journalist.
One day in 2004, Gardiner Harris, a pharmaceutical reporter for The New York Times, was early for a flight and sat down at an airport bar. He struck up a conversation with the woman on the barstool next to him, who happened to be a drug sales rep for Johnson & Johnson. Her horrific story about unethical sales practices and the devastating impact they'd had on her family fundamentally changed the nature of how Harris would cover the company—and the entire pharmaceutical industry—for the Times. His subsequent investigations and ongoing research since that very first conversation led to this book—a blistering exposé of a trusted American institution and the largest healthcare conglomerate in the world.
Harris takes us light-years away from the company's image as the child-friendly "baby company" as he uncovers reams of evidence showing decades of deceitful and dangerous corporate practices that have threatened the lives of millions. He covers multiple disasters: lies and cover-ups regarding the link of Johnson's Baby Powder to cancer, the surprising dangers of Tylenol, a criminal campaign to sell antipsychotics that have cost countless lives, a popular drug used to support cancer patients that actually increases the risk that cancer tumors will grow, and deceptive marketing that accelerated opioid addictions through their product Duragesic (fentanyl) that rival even those of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma.
Filled with shocking and infuriating but utterly necessary revelations, No More Tears is a landmark work of investigative journalism that lays bare the deeply rooted corruption behind the image of babies bathing with a smile.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (1/29/2026)
I just finished A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan for the BookBrowse 1000 Books to Read Before You Die side read. I'm not sure what I think of it. I'm very interested in what our discussion beginning February 1 brings out. I'm still listening to the audiobook ofRabbit, Run by John Updi...
-Lana_Maskus
2025 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists
Have only read two books within the non-fiction category - Daughters of the Bamboo Grove (Barbara Demick) and No More Tears (Gardiner Harris). Demick's book was well-researched and an engaging and revealing story but not one of her better books as I found parts repetitive. No More Tears was well-...
-Gabi_J
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/6/2025)
Right now I am reading No More Tears, the the dark history of Johnson & Johndon by Gardiner Harris. An extraordinarily well researched study of the dark side of a beloved American company. I will not say more except it is truly horrifying. I just finished Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins...
-Dianne_S
"A masterpiece of muckraking...This hard-hitting exposé from journalist Harris documents scandals and malfeasance by the pharmaceutical conglomerate Johnson & Johnson...Harris supports his takedown with a mountain of evidence and conveys his findings in scorching prose." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"It is very nearly impossible to believe that this company could be capable of so many layers of deceit and dishonesty, yet that is exactly what Harris lays bare in this masterfully researched title with a narrative akin to a thriller in its intensity...An absolutely unforgettable must-read." —Booklist (starred review)
"Deeply researched and smartly written, No More Tears reveals the disturbing story behind one of America's most trusted brands. Gardiner Harris has done a great service, giving us a page-turning drama that raises life-or-death questions about the world's largest healthcare conglomerate." —Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Life
"Leave it to Gardiner Harris, the premier pharma reporter of his generation, to take on the industry's leviathan, laying bare the ruthless soul of 'America's favorite company.' Harris's tour of the sausage factory is one that doctors, nurses, and their patients should all take, to see for themselves how the business of medicine really works." —Benedict Carey, award-winning New York Times science correspondent and author of How We Learn
This information about No More Tears was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gardiner Harris previously served as the public health and pharmaceutical reporter for the New York Times and is now a freelance investigative journalist. He also served as a White House, South Asia, and international diplomacy reporter for the Times. Before that, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering the pharmaceutical industry. His investigations there led to what was then the largest fine in the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, he was the Appalachian reporter for The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky. He won the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative journalism and the George Polk Award for environmental reporting after revealing that coal companies deliberately and illegally exposed miners to toxic levels of coal dust. Harris's novel, Hazard, draws on his experience investigating these conditions. He has also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist with a team of others at the Times. He lives in San Diego, California.
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