In remarks this morning to Wall Street analysts, the health care giant’s ceo doesn’t reveal too much more than what was contained in the statement issued earlier. But he does say the company was looking at this move for some time and took a ‘laser focus’ approach to the business.

Backdrop: setbacks with drug-eluting stents and its Procrit EPO med, and upcoming patent expirations on such big-selling drugs as the Risperdal antipsychotic. To cope, J&J will cut 4 percent of its 120,500 global workforce and close an unspecified number of facilities to save between $1.3 billion and $1.6 billion next year.

“I wouldn’t look at this as best-case, or worst-case scenario. It’s really about the actions we feel are needed to go forward,” says Weldon on the conference call. These challenges in front of us need to be proactively addressed rather than react to them…We took a disciplined look.”

He took pains to pooh-pooh analyst probes about J&J’s commitment to drug-eluting stents. “We still see drug-eluting stents as a rewarding opportunity,”he says. “By no means do we diminish our hopes for the drug-eluting stent business.”

Earlier this month, J&J reported econd-quarter profit rose 9 percent, but US sales of its Cypher drug-eluting stents fell 41 percent. And Procrit sales fell 6 percent to $758 million.