J&J Drug Executive Assumes Consumer Unit Oversight

A senior Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals executive will now also oversee the company's consumer healthcare unit, following quality control lapses that led to massive recalls of Tylenol and other consumer brands.

The executive, Ajit Shetty, is corporate vice president of supply chain, with oversight of manufacturing at plants making J&J's array of prescription medicines. He will now also have oversight of manufacturing at J&J's McNeil consumer healthcare unit as well as its plants making medical devices, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

J&J is highly diversified, with hundreds of subsidiaries making everything from Band-Aids to Listerine mouthwash to biotech treatments for arthritis. But its reputation has been tarnished by numerous recalls in the past year of Tylenol, Motrin and other consumer brands, leading to the closure in April of its McNeil plant in Fort Washington, Pa. A costly upgrade of the plant is expected to last until mid-2011.

Company Chief Executive Officer William Weldon, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday, said the quality lapses were limited to the McNeil unit, which he called an "outlier" for the company.