Another woman will take the mantle from Johnson & Johnson's "most powerful woman in pharma." Veteran J&Jer Sheri McCoy (photo [1]) has been tapped to lead the company's pharmaceuticals division, replacing Christine Poon (photo [2]), who's retiring in March [3]. Now chairman of J&J's surgical products unit, McCoy is a chemical engineer by training; she's served as head of the company's medical devices division in Latin America and as chief of J&J's Ethicon business. Alex Gorsky (photo [4]), who joined J&J back in February after leaving Novartis [5], will take McCoy's slot as surgical chief.

McCoy will be charged with the difficult task of boosting growth at J&J's pharma unit, which has been struggling of late; last quarter, it posted a 3.1 percent hike in revenue on the back of foreign exchange gains, but without the currency boost, sales would have dropped by 1.3 percent. As you know, J&J recently lost patent protection on its blockbuster antipsychotic Risperdal, and the faces all the same pressures that are plaguing Big Pharma everywhere.

CEO Bill Weldon (photo [6]) cited McCoy's "breadth of business experience" as a big asset. Writing to the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Weldon said, "Sheri has a strong history of success leading R&D organizations as well as businesses in our consumer and medical devices areas." We'll see how she does at leading the pharma biz.

- check out J&J's release [7]
- read the item [8] at the Health Blog
- see Business Week's coverage [9]

Related Articles:
Top-ranked woman to retire from J&J [10]
Novartis' Gorsky to return to J&J [11]
J&J's Bill Weldon - CEO Pay [12]
J&J's consumer sales drive earnings growth [13]