President of Johnson & Johnson’s Cordis Unit to Resign Next Month

Cordis President Todd Pope will step down next month, the latest in a series of departures within the senior ranks of Johnson & Johnson’s cardiovascular care division.

Pope will leave on July 11 to pursue opportunities outside J&J and spend more time with his family, said Cordis spokesman Chris Allman. Pope’s exit was first made public by Larry Biegelsen, an analyst for Wachovia Capital Markets, who put out an investor note this morning.

The main franchise of Cordis is drug-coated stents, a market that has shrunk dramatically in the past year because of conflicting data about the device’s safety. Cordis is developing a new generation of stents, but the unit is widely regarded as behind other rivals in that effort.

Cordis will continue to be led by Seth Fischer, the worldwide chairman for the unit, who replaced Rick Anderson in January. Other departures in upper management include Chief Medical Officer David Kandzari, sales vice president Mark Valentine, health economics vice president Brian Firth and his replacement Liesl Cooper and vice president of clinical affairs Denis Donohoe, according to Biegelsen.

“Although expectations among investors for Cordis’ stent franchise are low, we view these significant changes at Cordis as an underappreciated near-term risk for Cordis’ business and a potential opportunities for competitors (Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic, Boston Scientific) to capitalize on,” he wrote.

Allman said some of the departures were normal attrition.

“Retirement is just a natural part of everyday life,” he said.

SOURCE: The Star-Ledger