(Yicai) Nov. 19 -- The China arm of US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is undergoing another round of organizational restructuring with changes in its business unit structure and has begun cutting employees across multiple divisions.

The latest layoffs started last week and affected various departments, insiders from J&J China told Yicai yesterday. "Layoffs have been ongoing gradually without public announcements," an ex-staffer said, adding that the move is part of the firm's global workforce reduction.

J&J China's public relations department did not deny the layoffs to Yicai, noting that there is "no additional information to share."

"Multinational medical device companies are facing increasingly complex challenges in the global and the Chinese market," Ma Min, president of Tinavi Medical Technologies, said to Yicai. "Recent major business adjustments by several companies suggest that multinational headquarters are reassessing markets and adjusting their strategies to minimize market risks."

Following the resignation of Will Song as chairman of J&J China and president of J&J MedTech China in April and the appointment of Edward Zhou as president of the medical technology business in July, the company initiated organizational and personnel adjustments across several business units, including establishing a new surgical products expansion division, Yicai learned.

Chen Xiaoming, senior director of J&J  MedTech China's MONARCH surgical division, submitted his resignation earlier this month and will leave the post at the end of this year.

A former executive at a multinational medical device firm told Yicai that "for foreign companies in China, technological leadership alone doesn't guarantee competitive advantage. They must also address market access, pricing, and management team execution capabilities."

"Multinational medical device firms in China have been experiencing turbulence," an industry insider told Yicai. This can be attributed to factors including profit impacts from medical consumables procurement reforms, intense market competition, and overseas headquarters reassessing their country operations to adapt to new market conditions.

The trend has affected multinational medical device and pharmaceutical giants such as GSK and Medtronic, which previously let go of employees in China.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev