In its first financial report since the Kenvue consumer health spinoff, Johnson & Johnson beat analyst expectations fueled by strong pharmaceutical sales including Darzalex, Erleada and Stelara.
Pictured: J&J’s building in Spain/iStock, BrasilNut1
Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday released its third-quarter earnings report, showing strong sales growth and revenues that exceeded analyst forecasts, while raising its full-year 2023 guidance.
In the most recent quarter, J&J posted $21.35 billion in sales, representing 6.8% growth compared with the same period last year. This revenue figure was higher than the consensus estimate of $21.05 billion, according to Seeking Alpha. The company’s adjusted operation sales also grew 4.9% in the third quarter compared with the same period in 2022.
Tuesday’s earnings announcement is J&J’s first financial report since it completed the spinoff of its consumer health business Kenvue in August 2023, from which it made $13.2 billion in an exchange offer that allowed shareholders to trade in their J&J shares for Kenvue shares. Given the business separation, J&J at the time lowered its revenue outlook to $83.2 billion to $84 billion, down from a previously estimated range of $98.8 billion to $99.8 billion.
The New Jersey-based pharma slightly raised its 2023 sales outlook on the low end on Tuesday, saying that it now expects a range of between $83.6 billion to $84 billion. J&J also reported a one-time, non-cash gain of around $21 billion as part of its discontinued operations in consumer health.
The bulk of J&J’s third-quarter revenues come from its Innovative Medicines business, focused on developing drugs across different disease areas, which brought in $13.89 billion, with 4.4% growth in adjusted operational sales compared with the same period in 2022.
The psoriasis treatment Stelara (ustekinumab), which is J&J’s best-selling asset, snagged more than $2.8 billion worldwide in the third quarter. Stelara is also approved for psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. This was followed by the multiple myeloma medicine Darzalex (daratumumab), which made nearly $2.5 billion.
However, taking away from this growth in the third quarter was J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine, which only brought in $41 million worldwide. This represents a nearly 98% drop in operational sales compared with the same quarter in 2022.
Excluding the coronavirus business, J&J’s overall operational sales growth for its Innovative Medicines business is at 8.2%.
J&J is looking to sustain this growth with several regulatory milestones in the coming months. These include an FDA submission, and subsequent potential approval, for Akeega (niraparib/abiraterone), which is being proposed for the first-line treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
The company is also awaiting the FDA’s verdict for Talvey (talquetamab) in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and is building toward a filing for Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel)—also for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma—and Edurant (rilpivirine) for pediatric HIV.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
