Johnson Johnson

The existence of talks aimed at a possible merger of Johnson & Johnson and Synthes were confirmed Monday by Synthes, which has major operations in Chester County. Synthes is a global medical device manufacturer with headquarters in Switzerland and West Chester, but also has four other facilities in West Chester and a fifth in Paoli. The company is one of the dominant players in the field of repairing bones, especially in the spine and those broken by trauma. That means plates and screws, compounds and medical power tools.

Synthes Inc., a global medical-device manufacturer with headquarters in West Chester and manufacturing operations in the area, is reported to be in merger talks with Johnson & Johnson. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening on its website that the deal, if completed, could be worth $20 billion, though the Journal cautioned that talks could break down. "As a matter of policy, we don't comment on speculation," Johnson & Johnson spokesman Bill Price said in an e-mail. Synthes officials could not be reached for comment Friday evening.

Johnson & Johnson, stung during the last year by two high-profile drug recalls, quietly has called back more of its products made at a Fort Washington plant, including about four million packages of Children's Benadryl allergy tablets and 800,000 bottles of junior-strength Motrin caplets. The company, the world's largest health-care manufacturer, said the products were safe and could continue to be used. It determined, however, that there were "insufficiencies in the development of the manufacturing process.

When Johnson & Johnson chief executive William C. Weldon testifies to Congress on Thursday, he plans to say his company "let the public down" with mistakes that led to a series of embarrassing recalls, including the massive pullback of more than 140 million bottles of Children's Tylenol and similar products made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, J&J's troubled Fort Washington subsidiary. But Weldon will also face tough questions about the company's seeming effort to dodge additional embarrassment - including via what one congressman dubbed the "phantom recall," in which "mystery shoppers" hired by a contractor were sent into 4,500 stores to buy back eight-pill vials of defective Motrin.

AMSTERDAM - Johnson & Johnson said Friday it is in advanced talks to acquire Dutch biotech firm Crucell NV for 1.75 billion euros ($2.29 billion), a deal that would boost the American health care product maker's vaccine business. In a joint statement, the companies said Johnson & Johnson, which already owns a 17.9 percent stake in Crucell, intends to offer 24.75 euros per share in cash for the remainder - a 58 percent premium to Crucell's closing price Thursday of euro15.70. Shares in Crucell on the Nasdaq Global Select market soared 55 percent to $31.83 at midday, while Johnson & Johnson shares were down 3 cents to $61.26.

A report on New Jersey gaming that reimagines Atlantic City doesn't look to Las Vegas or New York for inspiration. It looks to one of its own: New Brunswick. The authors of the report say the 35-year transformation of the small central New Jersey city, the home of Rutgers University, offers a model for turning around the struggling Shore resort. In the mid-1970s, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson created a process for redevelopment through public-private partnerships - most significantly, through a tax-exempt development company specifically for New Brunswick.

Just a month after a top executive of Johnson & Johnson promised a "cooperative and transparent dialogue" with the Food and Drug Administration, FDA inspectors found themselves stymied when seeking records at J&J's Lancaster plant. According to an inspection report for the plant released Wednesday by the FDA, inspectors said they were confronted by numerous delays when seeking records concerning drug production and controls. Even something as basic as an organizational chart for the plant was not readily available, according to the report.

Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, said today that it reached agreement to buy Micrus Endovascular Corp. for an estimated $480 million, subject to regulatory approval in the United States and other countries. Micrus shareholders, who also must approve the deal, will receive $23.40 for each share of stock they own. Micrus, San Jose, Calif., was founded in 1996 and makes implantable and disposable medical devices to treat stroke, brain aneurysms and other cerebral vascular diseases.

Richard B. Sellars, 94, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson who resisted abandoning the company's hometown in New Jersey and then helped revitalize its downtown, died Friday at his home in Osterville, Mass. Joining the company in 1939 as a junior salesman for its new Ortho Pharmaceutical division, Mr. Sellars worked for Johnson & Johnson for 40 years. He became the company's chairman and chief executive in 1973, the second person from outside of the founding Johnson family to head the health-care conglomerate.