Johnson & Johnson's Vice Chairman Poon To Retire In March

(RTTNews) - Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) board vice chairman, Christine Poon, who is also the head of the conglomerate's ailing pharmaceuticals group, is retiring on March 1, 2009, after a 8-year tenure with the company.

Poon's career graph in J&J

- Started her stint with J&J in November, 2000, as chairman of the pharmaceuticals group.

- Promoted to the Executive Committee and named Worldwide Chairman of the Pharmaceuticals group in August, 2001.

- Made the Worldwide Chairman of the Medicines & Nutritionals business in October 2003.

- Elected to the J&J board of directors and named a Vice Chairman of the Board in 2005.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Poon spent 15 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she was President of International Medicines at the time of her leaving the company.

A 23-year veteran of the health care industry, Poon is retiring to spend more time with family. J&J Chairman and Chief Executive William Weldon said "a timely announcement" of succession will be made. Weldon lauded Poon as being instrumental in building Johnson & Johnson's pipeline of medicines.

In recent times, J&J's pharmaceuticals business has not been in the pink of health. A number of its key drugs have run off patent including its anti-infective Levaquin, pain patch Duragesic and $2-billion-a-year antipsychotic Risperdal.

In addition to erosion by generic competition, the FDA said in late August that it needs additional data before approving the expanded use of J&J's antibiotic Doribax. The company is seeking approval for Doribax as a treatment for hospital-acquired pneumonia. The drug is already endorsed by the FDA to treat intra-abdominal and urinary tract infections.

The company faced yet another setback when the FDA again sought additional data for the company's schizophrenia treatment paliperidone palmitate, an investigational once-a -month atypical antipsychotic intramuscular injection.

Although J&J's pharmaceuticals business has been struggling, diversification has helped the company stay robust. Recently, the company posted a 8% rise in second-quarter profit, piggy-backing the strength in its consumer products and medical devices business, as well as international sales growth.

The consumer products business benefited from the new nonprescription allergy pill -- Zyrtec, which now has 27% share of the non-prescription allergy market. The medical devices segment was led by the new Acuvue contact lenses for astigmatism patients and surgical products for treating obesity.

For the first time in the company's history, international sales outpaced domestic sales. International sales jumped 16.2% to $8.24 billion in the latest second quarter, slightly above U.S. sales that totaled $8.21 billion. Strong International growth reduces the company's reliance on the U.S., diversifying the business into high growth emerging markets.

Earnings for the quarter topped analysts expectations by 5.4%. In the last 4 quarters, the company has been consistently outperforming estimates by 5.4%, 5%, 2.3% and 6%, in the same order.

The company has substantially completed a restructuring program announced last year, and is on track to save $1.6 billion in costs this year. Citing this, the company revised its full-year outlook to $4.45 - $4.50 per share from prior projections of $4.40-$4.45 per share.

Analysts are bullish about the company's earnings prospects. In the last 90 days, third-quarter earnings per share estimates for the company have been revised up by 2 cents to $1.12 and full year estimates by 6 cents to $4.51.

J&J stock broke through resistance in early September and set a new 52-week high of $72.76. Currently, the stock is trading at $70.52 down $0.64 or 0.90%.

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