SALON

Thursday, Sep 13, 2012 12:45 PM UTC

J&J taps Bayer exec for new post over 3 divisions

By

Topics: From the Wires,

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is hiring a Bayer Group executive for a new position overseeing J&J’s troubled consumer health and manufacturing operations, as new CEO Alex Gorsky tackles key problems at the health care giant.

It’s the first big executive move by Gorsky, who became CEO in April and pledged to fix a host of quality, legal and ethical problems involving consumer and other products and sales practices.

New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that Sandra E. Peterson, the chief executive of Bayer CropScience, will join J&J on Dec. 1.

She will become one of six worldwide group chairmen and six members of the executive committee at Johnson & Johnson.

Besides overseeing the recall-plagued consumer health business and J&J’s factories and supply chain, Peterson will have responsibility for information technology. The manager of each of those divisions will report to her.

J&J, the world’s most diversified health care company, sells prescription drugs, medical devices and diagnostic products, along with over-the-counter drugs and a stable of toiletries such as Listerine mouthwash that are household names.

For the past two years, Peterson, 52, has run Bayer’s crop business, which sells seeds and chemical and biological crop protection products. Before that, she was chief executive of Bayer Medical Care and president of the Diabetes Care Division of Bayer HealthCare. She’s been a member of Bayer Healthcare’s executive committee for seven years.

Earlier in her career, the New York native served as an executive at a few American companies.

In 1999, she became a senior vice president at drugmaker Merck & Co.’s prescription benefit management business, Medco. She played a role in Medco’s 2003 spinoff as an independent company. She then was a group president of Medco Health Solutions Inc., which became part of what’s now called Express Scripts Holding Co. this summer.

Peterson previously served as an executive at foodmaker Nabisco, now part of Kraft Foods Inc., and at appliances manufacturer Whirlpool Corp. She also worked on product development and brand marketing strategies while a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. from 1987 through 1993.

“Sandy Peterson is an experienced global leader known for her strategic thinking and proven track record in growing businesses,” Gorsky said in a statement.

Gorsky has said his priorities include restoring quality and ending recalls in the company’s consumer health business, plus rounding out the executive team.

Consumer health is the smallest of J&J’s three business segments, with sales of $14.9 billion last year, but it’s far and away the most visible division to the general public.

Its many brands have long been staples on the shelves of pharmacies, grocery stores and discounters, from the iconic Johnson & Johnson’s Band-Aids and No More Tears baby shampoo to o.b. tampons and Aveeno and Neutrogena skin care products.

In the past three years, it’s had an eye-popping series of more than two dozen product recalls, for nonprescription medicines including Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Sudafed. Reasons range from tiny glass and metal shards in some liquid medicines to the wrong levels of active ingredients and nauseating odors in product packaging.

Besides tarnishing the image of a company that insists it still follows its credo of putting patients, doctors and employees ahead of profits, the recalls have hurt J&J’s finances, costing it more than $1 billion in lost sales. That’s a key reason total company revenue declined in 2009 and 2010, a first since the Depression. In addition, J&J has cited higher-than-expected remediation costs as it rebuilds one of its consumer products factories from the ground up, and two others have production slowed by increased government scrutiny.

Production of many products has been shifted to other factories, but J&J has repeatedly pushed back its target for getting all the recalled products back on store shelves and now doesn’t expect that to happen until sometime next year.

No injuries have been linked to the recalls.

The company also is negotiating a settlement with the federal government, expected to be in the $2 billion range, over promoting prescription drugs for unapproved uses.

___

Linda A. Johnson can be followed at —http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

Linda A. Johnson

More Linda A. Johnson.

Next Article

You Might Also Like

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

Gripping photos: The people of the Turkey protests (slideshow)

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • The protests take on a festive element as police forces move out of the park and square. Wearing a gas mask, this young man dances to traditional Turkish music in front of Taksim Square’s Ataturk Monument.

  • In Gezi Park since March 31st, this protester, originally caught off-guard by the Government’s teargas and water cannons, went out and bought a Russian army mask from WWII, preparing for what was to come.

  • This rambunctious boy seems to be enjoying the chaos. After taking this picture he threw a stone at the already destroyed building in the background.

  • Forming a line, the police face off directly with protesters in Taksim Square. After a while, they retreated and there was a general cheer – a back-and-forth dance that has been common since the beginning of this protest.

  • An elderly woman in Gezi Park reads the news. The tent community occupying the park was violently destroyed on June 16th.

  • Many different groups had set up booths to promote their cause in Taksim Square and Gezi Park. Standing in front of one, this man waves his flag while posing with conviction.

  • Many home-remedies are used to minimize the effects of tear gas. This woman has put a milky solution on her face, removing her mask after the tear gas dissipated. Before sunrise, the police came again for another round of teargasing.

  • People capitalize on the uprising -- selling flags, beer, gas masks, sky lanterns and spray paint to name just a few of the popular items.

  • On Monday morning, June 11, the police execute a strong offensive. Many plain-clothed police officers, like the ones seen here, clash with protesters in the side streets away from the main stand-off in Taksim.

  • The authorities seem to be most aggressive in the night, pushing protesters away from the square and park. After being teargassed this young woman catches her breath with other protesters on Siraselviler Street.

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( settings | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves": Growing up primate

Recommendations