Seth Fischer takes over as president of Cordis from Todd Pope. Source: Wharton HealthCare  Conference

Todd Pope, president of Cordis, Johnson & Johnson’s cardiovascular division, will step down in July, the latest in a series of senior management shifts at the company.

Pope, who joined Cordis in 2006, will leave July 11 to pursue opportunities outside Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and spend more time with his family, said Cordis spokesman Chris Allman.

However, the main product of Cordis is drug-eluting stents (DES), a market that has shrunk in the past year because of conflicting data about its safety. Cordis is currently developing next-generation stents, but Cordis is widely considered as behind other rivals in its sales efforts.

In recent years, the DES market has been controlled by Cordis’ Cypher and Boston Scientific’s Taxus. However, Medtronic’s Endeavor entered the U.S. market in February, and Abbott’s Xience V is expected to be introduced before the year’s end, which willl add more competition in a narrow market.

The Miami Lakes, Fla.-based Cordis said it will continue to be led by Seth Fischer, the global chairman for the J&J unit, who replaced Rick Anderson in January.

Other departures in upper management include Chief Medical Officer David Kandzari, Sales Vice President Mark Valentine, Health Economics Vice President Brian Firth and his replacement Liesl Cooper and Vice President of Clinical Affairs Denis Donohoe. Allman said that Donohoe and Firth are both retiring and that Kandzari left to pursue his medical practice.