The world’s largest medical device operation is eyeing acquisitions to bolster its "subscale" cardiovascular business, particularly its electrophysiology business, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) chairman & CEO Alex Gorsky told analysts yesterday.

In a conference call discussing J&J’s 2nd-quarter results, Gorsky said he’s interesting in shoring up the EP business, which is growing at a 14% clip.

"We realized that in cardiovascular we’re subscale. We have a very strong EP business that’s growing at 14%," he said. "[G]iven our decision several years ago in cardiovascular, we’re going to continue to watch that area very close to augment potentially onto our EP business, which has done very well."

Gorsky said the New Brunswick, N.J.-based firm’s decision in 2011 to abandon the coronary stent market was predicated on decline prices and sales volume.

"[W]e looked at areas like our cardiovascular business and drug-eluting stents, and we saw a lot of market pressure ahead both in terms of volume and pricing. We therefore made a difficult decision to exit that market, but nonetheless we think that that was the right decision to make base upon the overall dynamics," he said.

In terms of acquisitions beyond the cardiovascular space, Gorsky said anything’s on the table as long as it matches up with Johnson & Johnson’s strategic rationale.

"At this point, we continue to watch the other segments, new technologies as they come in, seeing what kind of opportunity they may present," he said. "And we continue to look for other ways in orthopedics as well as in global surgery. Again, where we see great technology that’s either a complimentary fit, has platform potential or may give us an opportunity for vertical integration."