Joaquin Duato, the new CEO of Johnson & Johnson, is comfortable enough in his new position at the 135-year-old company to issue a bold claim just a few months into the job and during his first interview: he predicts the next decade will see more health-care transformation than occurred during the past century.
Duato, the first non-U.S. born CEO for the company, and first to hold dual citizenship (Spain and U.S.), has been with J&J for three decades and was at one point the chief information officer of its pharmaceuticals business, giving him key insights into the role of technology in health care.
Priority No. 1, Duato told CNBC’s Meg Tirrell at Healthy Returns on Wednesday, is the opportunity “to create more progress in health in this decade than we have seen in the last 100 years.”
As J&J prepares to split into two companies, Duato said that separating the consumer brands like Band-Aid, Tylenol, Neutrogena and Listerine from medical technology and pharmaceuticals will help the company be at the forefront of surgical techniques that transform health care.
