NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - For generations, Johnson & Johnson has been synonymous with American health care and, at times, with American health care scandals.
Now the 135-year-old company is joining a growing roster of iconic American businesses that are splitting up as they seek to please restive shareholders and move past recent controversies.
On Friday (Nov 12) Johnson & Johnson announced plans to spin off its consumer-products division - famous for brands such as Tylenol, Band-Aid and Neutrogena - into a separate company.
Johnson & Johnson will keep its more profitable, faster-growing businesses in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
The planned breakup comes after years of tribulations for Johnson & Johnson.
The company is juggling lawsuits for its role in the opioid epidemic and over accusations that the talc once used in its baby powder had caused cancer in some customers.
Even the company's single-shot Covid-19 vaccine, once expected to be widely used around the world, has fallen far short of its promise because of production problems and fears about rare side effects.
Johnson & Johnson, with headquarters in New Jersey, is part of a parade of once-proud companies that have recently unveiled plans to break themselves up or radically shrink.
This week alone, industrial conglomerates General Electric and Toshiba announced that they would split up.
"We are at the point in the cycle where conglomerates are less popular," said Professor Erik Gordon, who studies business strategy at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
"The pharma companies in particular are trying to focus on pharma."
Even before the planned split, Johnson & Johnson was in the midst of a generational change. The company announced over the summer that Mr Joaquin Duato, who had run its pharmaceutical division, would take over as CEO in January.
Mr Alex Gorsky, who has been CEO for nearly a decade, will stay on as executive chair.
Johnson & Johnson said it planned to complete the breakup within two years. Executives described the move as an effort to better focus on and to expand two types of businesses.
"We must continually be evolving our business to provide value today, tomorrow and in the decades ahead," Mr Gorsky said in a statement.
