Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive William Weldon will step down from his post in April after a series of recalls called into question the quality of the health care conglomerate's products, from artificial hips to infant Tylenol.
Vice Chairman Alex Gorsky, 51, will become CEO effective April 26, the date of J&J's next board meeting, the company said. Gorsky was also nominated to the board, it added. Weldon, 63, remains the chairman.
The conglomerate, which had more than 250 companies under the J&J umbrella, has been plagued by a series of massive recalls across a wide range of product and medicine lines over the past two years.
The quality control problems at J&J's consumer healthcare unit were deemed so pervasive that last March, U.S. health regulators took over supervision of three J&J manufacturing plants.
