Johnson & Johnson JNJ-N reported first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday and raised its full-year forecast, as strong demand for cancer drug Darzalex and psoriasis treatment Tremfya more than offset a steep falloff in sales of its blockbuster autoimmune drug Stelara.
The drug and device maker reported first-quarter revenue of US$24.1-billion, up nearly 10 per cent from a year earlier. That exceeded analysts’ estimates of US$23.6-billion, according to LSEG data. Adjusted earnings came in at US$2.70 per share, above the consensus estimate of US$2.66.
Stelara, which topped US$10-billion in annual sales at its peak, is facing biosimilar competition after losing patent protection last year. Sales of the drug fell around 60 per cent from a year ago to US$656-million.
Shares of the company, which have risen 15 per cent so far this year, were marginally up in volatile premarket trading.
JPMorgan profit rises as volatile markets drive trading division
Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that instead of switching to the biosimilars, many patients have chosen other treatments like Tremfya.
“We are seeing increased share in Tremfya and we anticipate we’ll see something similar in the new oral offering,” Wolk said, referring to its new drug Icotyde, which was approved in March.
The company said it expects the impact from newly launched products to become more pronounced as the year progresses.
Tremfya, which treats psoriasis as well as inflammatory bowel diseases, brought in US$1.6-billion for the quarter. Analysts were expecting sales of US$1.2-billion for the drug.
Sales of Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, were US$4-billion for the quarter, easily beating analysts’ expectations of US$3.4-billion.
Quarterly sales for the medical technology business rose 7.7 per cent to US$8.6-billion, in line with analysts’ expectations.
J&J expects further rounds of China’s volume-based procurement (VBP) this year, with greater impact in the second half. China rolled out the bulk-buy program in 2018 in an attempt to negotiate lower prices from drug manufacturers and has since expanded it to many parts of the country.
The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue forecast range with a new midpoint of about US$100.8-billion, just above Wall Street’s estimate of US$100.6-billion. It also lifted its adjusted earnings outlook to US$11.55 per share at the midpoint, about in line with current expectations.
J&J is among the group of top global drugmakers that have agreed to so-called most-favored-nation drug pricing deals with the Trump administration. The companies have said they will lower their U.S. drug prices to match those charged in other developed countries, in exchange for tariff relief.
The company expects the impact of the agreement with the U.S. government to be evenly distributed throughout the year.
President Donald Trump has asked for Congress to codify the most-favored-nation deals through legislation, but Wolk said J&J believes that would be bad policy.
“We’re not a fan of codifying” MFN, he said. “It’s really kind of a back door to price controls and we’ve seen what happens in countries with price controls - patients have less access to the most important medicines and innovation goes down.”