By deciding not to fill the No. 2 job held by Richard Gonzalez, who is retiring next month as coo, Abbott Laboratories has thrust into the spotlight the executives who head four major operating units at the health care giant, The Chicago Tribune reports. The heads of medical devices, pharma, nutritionals and diagnostics will now report directly to Miles White, Abbott’s chairman and ceo.

However, the company insists this isn’t a horse race to succeed White, who is only 52 and supposedly finds such moves divisive. As a result, Wall Street is watching carefully to see how each division head performs. The list includes: Holger Liepmann, 55, executive vp, global nutrition; Edward Michael, 50, executive vp, diagnostics; John Capek, 45, executive vp, medical devices; and James Tyree, 54, executive vp, pharmaceutical products group, who is replacing the retiring Bill Dempsey, 55, an Abbott veteran.

Among the key issues to watch: FDA approval of an experimental drug-coated stent known as Xience, which some analysts say could dominate a $6 billion world. What’s unclear is whether the FDA would want an advisory committee to review safety issues, given recent studies of other stents. Another is the success of the Kos Pharma acquisition, which yielded a cholesterol; a struggling nutritions business and the unexpected retention of the diagnostics unit after a sale to GE was scratched.

“I would expect that more attention will be given to the fellow that is in charge of the pharmaceutical business and the guy in charge of the vascular business.” which falls under medical devices, says Sara Michelmore, an analyst at Cowen. But “some are more battle tested than others” and are now being given “autonomy to run the businesses.”