J&J CEO To Step Down

William Weldon will step down as Johnson & Johnson’s chief executive officer; vice chairman Alex Gorsky will replace Mr. Weldon on April 26th. Mr. Weldon will remain chairman. He has held both roles for almost 10 years and has been with the company for 30 years, starting out as a sales representative at J&J’s McNeil consumer division.

Mr. Gorsky began his career at J&J in 1988 as a sales representative with the Janssen Pharmaceutica unit. In 2001, he was appointed president of Janssen, and in 2003, he became group chairman of J&J’s pharmaceuticals business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Most recently he served as global chairman of the Surgical Care Group.

In the past two years, the company has undergone a series of major recalls from artificial hips to infant Tylenol, raising quality concerns and costing the company nearly $1 billion in 2010 sales. The company also suffered an embarrassing week of testimony in a Texas courtroom before electing to settle the Risperdal marketing case for $158 million. Due to the quality control problems at J&J’s McNeil consumer healthcare unit, the FDA took over supervision of three manufacturing plants in March 2011. Under a consent decree, the FDA will oversee those plants for at least five years, and an independent expert was retained to inspect manufacturing facilities. The FDA can levy fines as much as $10 million annually if the agreement has been violated.