J&J holds analyst meeting highlighting growth strategies for its Medical Devices and Diagnostics (MD&D) segment http://bit.ly/cdY11k

Webcast of presentations for J&J MD&D analyst meeting on J&J website http://bit.ly/gNVaT

MD&D day will highlight new products, including blood glucose monitoring/hernia repair systems, disposable contacts http://bit.ly/agrGrp

Gorsky, WW Chair, MD&D segment: can grow in underpenetrated mrkts thru intro of more advanced products/organic growth http://bit.ly/agrGrp

MD&D received more than 12 reg approvals so far in ’10, plans to make about 80 significant submissions between ’10-’12 http://bit.ly/agrGrp

MD&D segment continues to globalize current portfolios by developing more localized products for different markets http://bit.ly/agrGrp

10:04 — Johnson & Johnson Chairman and CEO Bill Weldon addresses shareholders at company’s annual meeting #JNJAM10

10:37 — CEO Weldon says 70% of sales are from products with #1 or #2 market share positions #JNJAM10

10:37 — CEO Weldon says it is the 48th consecutive year Johnson & Johnson has increased quarterly dividend #JNJAM10

10:38 — CEO Weldon says that in 2009, Johnson & Johnson delivered total shareholder return of 11.3 percent #JNJAM10

10:40 — Shareholders elect nominees to the J&J Board of Directors/ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent auditors for 2010 #JNJAM10

10:41 — Johnson & Johnson increased quarterly dividend from 49 cents a share to 54 cents a share http://bit.ly/bnhLmx #JNJAM10

10:46 — CEO Weldon outlines 4 factors that enable growth that will be focused on: 1) innovative products, 2) robust pipelines #JNJAM10

10:47 — CEO Weldon outlines 4 factors that enable growth that will be focused on: 3) global presence, 4) talented people #JNJAM10

10:49 — WW Chairman of Consumer, Colleen Goggins addresses the Johnson & Johnson shareholder meeting #JNJAM10

10:50 — Goggins describes opportunities for the consumer business: emerging markets, digital media, non-traditional retail channels, sustainability

10:55 — Johnson & Johnson increased quarterly dividend from 49 cents a share to 54 cents a share http://bit.ly/bnhLmx #JNJAM10 $JNJ

11:03 — Goggins highlights Text4Baby initiative (http://bit.ly/9mo0nK and http://bit.ly/csUdPt) at J&J shareholder meeting #JNJAM10

11:04 — WW Chairman of Medical Devices and Diagnostics Alex Gorsky addresses Johnson & Johnson shareholder meeting http://bit.ly/2mgd9k #JNJAM10

11:10 – Gorsky says MD&D segment is “largest in the world” and then highlights some of the breakthrough innovations the company is bring to market

11:19 — WW Chairman of Pharmaceuticals Sheri McCoy addresses Johnson & Johnson shareholder meeting http://bit.ly/2mgd9k #JNJAM10

11:23 — McCoy describes how the global pharmaceutical market is roughly $775 billion and projected to grow to over a trillion by 2014 #JNJAM10

11:39 — CEO Weldon describes the company’s Bridge to Employment program — and how it builds HC systems and lives http://bit.ly/b34Q83 #JNJAM10

11:42 — CEO Weldon talks about how Johnson & Johnson responded to the earthquake in Chile http://bit.ly/dwGAXm #JNJAM10

12:23 — That’s the end of the presentations at the J&J annual shareholders meeting. Thanks for joining us. http://bit.ly/2mgd9k #JNJAM10

“These Growth Priorities are what we believe our businesses need to focus on. They are:

Innovative Products – Our growth has always been based on scientific innovations that serve unmet patient and customer needs in a meaningful way. This has led us to be a market leader, #1 or #2, in many of our businesses. We will stay focused on bringing forth innovative, accessible and effective products – and entirely new business models — that address the most prevalent health care needs of the day.

Robust Pipelines – We must continuously target, invest and manage the development of a robust pipeline of new medicines, devices and products. We plan to use a mix of internal and external sources to sustain pipelines that provide a competitive advantage. We fully expect the new products coming out of our pipeline today to accelerate the proportion of our sales driven by newer products.

Global Presence – As a global health care leader, we must continue to expand our presence and execute our strategies in the appropriate way for diverse markets and customers. Our approach will be strategic, effective and cost-efficient to address the local needs.

Talented People – Our extraordinary and diverse workforce is still our cornerstone and we must develop our people, challenge them, motivate them and reward them to achieve success.”

In his remarks to analysts today to discuss the fourth quarter 2009 earnings, Chairman and CEO Bill Weldon took a look back at what was said back in 2008 and then to see what the company has accomplished. So what exactly were those accomplishments?

You can listen to a replay of the earnings call – including Bill’s remarks – but I thought it would be of interest to share what he covered for those checking out JNJBTW. During the call today, Bill said the following:

“When we met with this group in January 2008, we looked ahead at the business challenges we would see over the next two years, we spoke about building our foundation of growth and we discussed many of the steps we were taking to do that:

We were in the midst of completing a restructuring of our Pharmaceuticals and Cordis businesses to deal with significant patent expirations and competitive pressures. Those restructurings were completed.

We were completing the integration of the Pfizer Consumer Healthcare business with our Consumer and OTC businesses, and looking ahead to further developing iconic brands like Listerine and Zyrtec. These integrated Consumer businesses are seeing solid performance.

We were continuing to make investments in emerging markets, including the traditional BRIC markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as other fast-growing developing markets like Mexico and Turkey.

We continued to advance our pipeline of pharmaceutical and medical device products, with many of those we highlighted now in the market or nearing approval.

We continued to identify white spaces in health care, investing in two acquisitions as cornerstones to a new Wellness and Prevention business.

Beyond that, we’ve made 8 major acquisitions since the beginning of 2008 and invested in several strategic licensing or collaboration agreements over that same period. These deals are complementary to our internal pipelines and bring us new capabilities or access to new growth platforms. “

Twelve of my collegues squeezed on to the historic balcony overlooking the noisy floor of the 217-year-old exchange to literally bring trading to a halt as the clock struck 4. You can catch the footage here.

A lot of thoughtful planning goes into the bell-ringing ceremony, with participants encouraged to arrive as early as 3 p.m. As we were making their way to the balcony at around 3:50, something prompted one of our group to ask their NYSE host if any ceremonial bell-ringing individual or organization had ever shown up late for the job. As a matter of fact, he was told, just recently one celebrity performer was quite upset to arrive a couple minutes late and discover they hadn’t held up the exchange closing for him.

To mark this moment, Margaret (as usual!!!) pulled out some fascinating facts and information about what it was like 65 years ago when the company first made the move from being a privately-held company to being listed on the NYSE.

As she explained:

…while the past may have little or no bearing on current or future events, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the difficult economic cycles in 1893, 1907 and 1929, and how the Company steered through those times…by looking at the bigger picture and managing for the long term.

In fact, the businesses being discussed comprise about 59% of the company’s sales in 2007 – or about $36.2 billion dollars.

Some highlights are touched on in a press release that was issued this AM (and you can also listen in on the webcast if you’d like), but for the rest of this morning – and on into this afternoon — business leaders from the consumer, medical devices and diagnostics businesses will talk about the current state of their businesses and what’s on the burner for tomorrow.

As Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso outlined all of the company’s businesses to set the tone for today, I was struck once again by the breadth of Johnson & Johnson. Through it’s operating companies, Johnson & Johnson is the largest medical technology business in the world, the sixth largest pharmaceutical company, the third largest biotech company, the world’s largest seller of over-the-counter medicines and sells some of the most well-known consumer brands in the world – including many that are more than 100 years old.

It is perhaps that breadth of business that has helped the company to consistently increase sales over the past 75 years, post earnings increases consistently over the past 24 years, and increase its dividend over the past 46 years — all points that Dominic touched on this AM.

(Oh, and in case you are wondering, the bag is made of 100% recycled materials…)

Of course, if you’d like to catch what was said at the meeting, which provides a great snapshot of the state of the business and a sense of how the company will grow in the coming years (among other things, expansion in emerging markets, the convergence between our different broadly-based business segments, and the identification of new business models were all mentioned) the entire event is webcast on the Johnson & Johnson website.

Ahhh… It’s that time of the year again — almost everywhere you turn there is another “greatest hits” of 2007 story to endure. A lot of all this is just fluff and filler, but even the cynic in me admits that there are some lists worth paying attention to. Time Magazine, for one, published its list of the top ten medical innovations for 2007 — which includes some pretty interesting developments in the field of medicine. Of particular note to those of us who work for Johnson & Johnson, this year’s list included the GeneSearch BLN Assay.

Approved last year and sold by Johnson & Johnson company Veridex, GeneSearch is the first intraoperative and gene-based test designed to detect the spread of breast cancer into the lymph nodes. Sitting here in Corporate Headquarters, I’m not close to the science behind this new product — and if you are looking for that it would be best to check in with Veridex — but I think how it all came about is a pretty interesting story.

As I’ve mentioned before, the breadth of Johnson & Johnson’s business and its decentralized operating model are often seen as a source of strength. This company has experts working in lots of different fields: from both traditional and biotech medicines to surgical devices to diagnostic tools to new science-based consumer products and cosmetics. In the case of GeneSearch, having this broad stable of experts paid off.

The discovery of suitable biomarkers — and their significance as a way to detect the spread of cancer — was not made in the diagnostics business, but in the discovery labs of Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceuticals business. In La Jolla, California, to be exact.

Experts in the established diagnostics business within Johnson & Johnson grasped the significance of this discovery — and recognized the role it could play in the diagnosis of cancer and in the lives of patients. In addition, surgical experts from another Johnson & Johnson company, Ethicon Endo Surgery, helped the team understand the problem from a surgeon’s perspective.

To fully develop this, a team was formed that included experts from these different businesses who together developed, refined and obtained approval for the GeneSearch tool. To house this multidisciplinary team, a new business unit was created — Veridex.

Now to be fair, had such discoveries been made at other companies that are more focused on either diagnostics, medical devices or pharmaceuticals, a similar outcome might have been achieved. But I believe that there is something about having all of this under one roof that helps this happen more often at Johnson & Johnson.

(Just to give you a flavor of how GeneSearch works in practice, I spoke to one of my colleagues in the diagnostics business who told me about the first time GeneSearch was used in a US operating room after FDA approval.

During surgery on a patient with breast cancer, a Florida physician stopped the procedure to check if the cancer had spread to a patient’s sentinel lymph node. He conducted both a frozen section test on a sample of the node and a GeneSearch test. About 40 minutes later, while the patient was still on the operating table, the GeneSearch test came back positive, leading him to remove the patient’s sentinel lymph node and finish the surgery. Later, tissue pathology confirmed the presence of cancer.)