Johnson & Johnson CEO Bill Weldon retires in April

Associated Press, by Linda A. Johson, AP Business Writer, Feb 21, 2012 

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Johnson & Johnson's longtime CEO, Bill Weldon, is retiring this April, following an embarrassing string of product recalls over more than 2 years that has cost the health care giant hundreds of millions of dollars and consumer trust.

(AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)

The maker of Band-Aids and biotech drugs said Tuesday that Weldon will remain chairman of the board for the time being, while ceding the chief executive post to Alex Gorsky, head of the medical device and diagnostics business. The official transfer will be on April 26, the day of the company's next annual shareholders meeting.

Weldon, 63, has spent his entire career at J&J and became chief executive in 2002. The departure is being described as normal succession planning, but Weldon has repeatedly said he had no plans to leave unless asked to do so by the board of directors, which has long been loyal to him.

His tenure has been tarnished by more than two dozen recalls of nonprescription Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and other drugs began in 2009. Medical devices and consumer products also have been recalled.

J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit has had about 25 product recalls since September 2009. Federal regulators have had three of its factories under scrutiny for nearly two years, and one of those, in Fort Washington, Pa., has been shut and is being rebuilt from the ground up.

Meanwhile, the prescription drug division has had at least two drugs, for seizures and HIV, recalled over that time. Gorsky's medical device unit, the company's biggest by revenue, has had faulty hip implants that were painful to patients recalled, along with contact lenses that sting the eyes.

While there haven't been reports of patients harmed by the recalled products, the sheer volume of them is probably unrivaled in the industry. Weldon has repeatedly said he had the problems under control, only to have another recall pop up, with the latest just last week.

William Weldon compensation

 package is about $29.3 million,

 according to page 43 of this SEC

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