• by Les Luchter , October 17, 2023

Johnson & Johnson released strong third quarter earnings Tuesday, led by a couple of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Stelara, for one, chalked up sales of $2.86 billion worldwide, up 16.9% year-over-year. In the U.S., sales rose 15.5% to $1.9 billion.

Stelara was the top-selling drug in J&J’s newly christened Innovative Medicine segment, formerly known as Pharma. But it wasn’t the fastest-growing one. That honor went to Tremfya, another anti-inflammatory, which rose 22.2% worldwide to $729 million, and 19.6% in the U.S. to $634 million.

Innovative Medicine and MedTech now comprise all of J&J’s business, as the consumer health segment now called Kenvue was formally shed during the quarter, resulting in $13.2 billion in cash proceeds from a debt offering and IPO.

Overall, J&J, which traditionally kicks off each quarter’s earnings report releases for the pharma industry, saw its sales rise 6.8% YoY to $21.4 billion, and increased its full-year sales guidance to 7.5%, up from 6.7% it had projected in August.

Three quarters of Stelara sales are for treating inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, J&J chief executive officer Joaquin Duato told investors Tuesday. The other 25% are using Stelara to fight psoriatic arthritis and plaque psoriasis.

Stelara will lose its U.S. exclusivity by next year, but Tremfya -- now indicated for psoriatic arthritis and plaque psoriasis -- is hoping to get FDA approval for IBD, including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis during 2024, according to Duato.

Stelara is also facing headwinds from Abbvie’s Skyrizi -- another drug targeting plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and Crohn's Disease patients -- which on Monday released results of a head-to-head study showing that Skyrizi had bested Stelara in treating Crohn’s in what Fierce Pharma called a “resounding win.”

Also noteworthy on J&J’s earnings call Tuesday, Erik Haas, vice president, litigation, said the company -- still embroiled in cancer-related litigation stemming from its former consumer division’s use of talcum in baby products and other products -- expects to be appealing one case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That case, seeking bankruptcy for a new subsidiary into which J&J had moved its talc problem, was dismissed in July. Expecting a similar ruling in a current appeal, Haas said J&J would then “immediately” go to the Supreme Court.

He noted that the current appeal has been “joined by counsel representing the vast majority of the talc claimants.”