Is Breaking Up Johnson & Johnson the Right Thing to Do?

Its beleaguered over-the-counter drug division will not be back to full speed until late next year. And it anticipates paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle litigation. The world's biggest health care company might find salvation by breaking into smaller companies, one prominent Wall Street analyst says. Such a move would free up money to invest, help the company grow faster and provide a bigger return to shareholders, says Jami Rubin of Goldman Sachs. J&J's new chief executive officer, Alex Gorsky, dismissed the idea, which other big health care companies are running with — suburban Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories and New York-based Pfizer among them.