Johnson & Johnson has unveiled a strong set of financials for the second quarter which show that turnover was up 8.7% to $16.45 billion, though the rise was principally due to diagnostics and consumer healthcare sales rather than drugs.
Worldwide pharmaceutical sales reached $6.34 billion, up 3.1%, and J&J’s biggest seller was the anti-inflammatory Remicade (infliximab), which edged up 2.0% to $886 million. The migraine agent Topamax (topiramate) brought in $677 million, a rise of 17.1%, but sales of the antipsychotic Risperdal (risperidone) fell 16.0% to $712 million.
That decline was mainly due to generic competition abroad, plus the effect of slowing sales ahead of the loss of marketing exclusivity in the USA which happened at the end of June. However, the longer-acting form of the drug, Risperdal Consta, enjoyed an 23.4% hike in sales to $343 million.
As for J&J’s other products, Velcade (bortezomib), for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, shot up 62.7% to $205 million, while turnover from the attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder therapy Concerta (methylphenidate) rose 9.0% to $279 million. The anti-infective Levaquin/Floxin (levofloxacin) decreased 3.6% to $351 million.
There was worse news for J&J’s anaemia therapy Procrit/Eprex (epoetin alfa), which slumped 14.0% to $652 million (and down 22.9% in the USA). The market for this class of drug has declined on the back of continued fears over cardiovascular safety for the entire erythropoiesis-stimulating class of drugs and problems regarding Medicare reimbursement.
As for its other divisions, medical devices and diagnostics sales reached $6.07 billion, a 12.1% increase over the previous year, while turnover from the consumer division climbed 13.2% to $4.0 billion. Overall, the results went down well with analysts, as group net income was up 8% to $3.33 billion, or $1.17 per share, ahead of estimates. J&J raised its full-year earnings guidance to $4.45-$4.50 per share from $4.40-$4.45.
