(Yicai) July 15 -- American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson named Edward Zhou, a former executive of biotechnology company Cytiva, as the head of its medical technology business in China, succeeding Will Song who resigned in April.

Zhou will assume the role of J&J MedTech China president on July 25, reporting to Vishnu Karla, chairman of J&J MedTech Asia Pacific, and is tasked with advancing the company's long-term strategy and accelerating its business growth, the New Jersey-based firm announced today. Song will stay onboard till Sept. 30 to ensure a smooth handover.

Before leaving for Cytiva, Zhou worked for J&J for nearly 30 years. He used to be the China general manager of consumer products and held the same title at a medical consumables unit called Vicryl. During his tenure at Vicryl, Zhou drove business innovation, accelerated market expansion, optimized the firm's product portfolio, and promoted local manufacturing of advanced surgical products in Suzhou, J&J said.

Zhou used to be the China president of biotechnology firm Cytiva, a subsidiary of American conglomerate Danaher. He helped complete an integration of Cytiva's life sciences business with that of another Danaher subsidiary, Pall.

After a series of adjustments over the past two years, J&J currently divides its global business into two major segments: Innovative Medicine and MedTech. The latter primarily involves medical devices and consumables.

In the first quarter of this year, MedTech's revenue increased by 5 percent to USD7.8 billion from a year ago, making up 37 of the total, according to the latest financial report.

Editor: Emmi Laine