• by Les Luchter , October 18, 2022

As if to demonstrate why Johnson & Johnson will spin off its Consumer Health business next year, analyst questions during Tuesday’s third quarter earnings call focused entirely on J&J’s two other business units: Pharmaceuticals and MedTech (medical devices).

Indeed, Consumer Health only accounted for 16% of J&J’s revenues during the third quarter, but that still represented a healthy $3.795 billion globally, up 1.9% year-over-year. In the U.S., sales rose 2.1% to $1.7 billion. Not bad for the newly named Kenvue, which J&J executive vice president/chief financial officer Joseph J. Wolksaid remains oncourse to debut in mid to late 2023.

Not much else about consumer health was said during the call. One tidbit: Price increases and increased incidences of cough, cold, flu and pediatric fever helped lead sales of over-the-counter drugs, which account for two-fifths of Consumer Health’s business, to a 2.5% global increase.

Moving on to the rest of Johnson & Johnson, overall, global sales for the third quarter were $23.8 billion, up 1.9% YoY. U.S. sales were $12.5 billion, up 4.1%.

Pharmaceuticals rose 2.6%, to $13.2 billion, and medtech, 2.1% to $6.78 billion.

J&J projects that pharmaceuticals alone will be a $60 billion business by 2025, with the growth coming from both current products and drugs already in the pipeline.

Pharmaceutical growth was led by the oncology sector, with a 10.9% rise in sales overall. Sales for Darzalex, which treats multiple myeloma cancer, rose 39%; and Erleda, which treats prostate cancer, rose 51.2%.

Immunology products, with only a 0.9% sales increase in the third quarter, nonetheless remain J&J’s pharma leader, with 32% of total sales.

Stelara was a star immunology product during the quarter, with 8% sales growth. The drug, which showed “strong share gains in both Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis” may be J&J’s “biggest product ever,” Wolk stated.

Meanwhile, Tremfya, which treats psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, grew at a 41.9% clip.

MedTech sales during the third quarter were helped by post-COVID growth in such areas as diagnostic procedures like colonoscopies, as well as surgical procedures, said Ashley McCoy, J&J’s executive vice president, worldwide chairman, Medtech.

Key players for MedTech during the quarter included wound closure products in the General Surgery sector, contact lenses in the Vision sector, and trauma products in the Orthopaedics sector.

McCoy also talked about meeting  “patient demand” by moving to “sites of care” like ambulatory surgery centers for things like joint and sports injuries, which she said have grown market share 20% over the past two years.

Wolk applauded the recent opening of J&J ‘s new R&D campus in San Francisco, saying that it “reinforces for me that the combination of science, technology, and data analytics will be the future of medicine."