TRENTON, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson’s longtime CEO is retiring in April, in the wake of an embarrassing string of product recalls that has cost the health care giant hundreds of millions of dollars and consumer trust.

The maker of Band-Aids and biotech drugs said Tuesday that Bill Weldon will remain chairman of the board for the time being, while ceding the chief executive post to Alex Gorsky, head of the company’s medical device and diagnostics business. The official transfer will be April 26, the same day as the next shareholders meeting.

Weldon, 63, has spent his entire career at J&J and became chief executive in 2002. The departure is being described as normal succession planning. His tenure has been tarnished by more than two dozen recalls of nonprescription Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and other drugs that began in 2009.