"Tragic" is the only word that does justice to the events described by this article.

The most interesting aspect of the story for me is how the company's culture has changed for the worst over time.

Johnson & Johnson was started and for many decades was run by sincerely idealistic do-no-evil entrepreneurs, who wanted to focus on "patients first and profits last"... but now this business is run by executives who seem to be doing the exact opposite while claiming to abide by the same values.

This is a huge challenge for successful founders: how does one ensure that a company's culture and values don't degrade long after the original team is gone?

The author, Steven Brill, a successful entrepreneur and writer[1], wrote another powerful long-form article about the insanity of healthcare bills in the US a couple of years ago:

http://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killin...

Highly recommended if this is of interest to you.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brill_(journalist)