Reporting Q4 and full year earnings on Wednesday, J&J executives hailed growth across the healthcare giant’s portfolio while standing fast on its talc lawsuit and tariffs.
Johnson & Johnson is eyeing $100 billion in revenue, setting up a head-to-head competition with Eli Lilly in a race to new heights in the U.S. pharma market. J&J clocked $94.2 billion worldwide for 2025, with expectations of reaching even higher in the year to come.
The 2025 revenue number represents 6% growth in worldwide sales for the company, according to a fourth quarter and year-end earnings release on Wednesday morning. The results show that J&J has easily persisted past loss-of-exclusivity for some of its best-selling drugs. “We came out of really successful 2025,” CEO Joaquin Duato said on a Wednesday conference call, “firmly placing the Stelara LoE in the rearview mirror.”
Stelara, the company’s blockbuster autoimmune drug, has seen dropping revenue since losing patent protection in 2024. Last year’s sales declined 42.7%, still clearing $6.1 billion but a far cry from 2024’s $10.3 billion.
Nevertheless, the mood on the call was rosey, as the continuing loss from Stelara was buffered by growth in almost every other area of the company’s portfolio.
J&J now expects 2026 sales to reach $100.5 billion, 1.6% above consensus of $98.9 billion, according to CFO Joseph Wolk. He pointed to growing sales for franchises like dermatitis treatment Tremfaya, which rose from $3.6 billion in 2024 to $5.2 billion in 2025, as well as depression treatment Spravato, which improved from $1.1 billion to $1.7 billion.
The esketamine spray should be a cornerstone seller for the company, analysts at Jefferies wrote ahead of the call, saying that guidance for its sales out to 2027–2028 are set at $3 billion to $3.5 billion.
The analysts added that they see “a warming regulatory environment” for psychedelic-related treatments like Spravato in other indications, including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
J&J’s oncology portfolio drove most of the growth, however, going from $20 billion across all drugs to $25 billion year-over-year, driven by sales for anti-tumor antibody Darzalex and CAR T treatment Carvykti, which crossed into blockbuster status for the first time with $1.8 billion in 2025 sales.
J&J mostly breezed past the impacts of regulatory headwinds coming from Washington, D.C. Wolk noted that potential tariffs affecting its medical technologies division amounted to approximately $500 million, significantly above 2025 levies, but said, “our financial strength is a competitive advantage that allows us to both invest in our future and return value to our shareholders.”
Wolk also added that the company expects that tariffs “will be relatively linear in 2026, unlike last year.”
On the subject of the company’s continuing litigation into its talc product, which has been dogging the company for years as plaintiffs say the discontinued product is linked to ovarian and cervical cancers, company executives stood firm.
Yesterday, a court-designated special master would not allow certain expert witnesses to testify in court while also allowing plaintiffs to present evidence. In response, Wolk said that the special master “correctly decided to exclude” those experts, who he said “preponded junk science,” while also bemoaning that “the court did not uphold its proper gatekeeping duty” in allowing plaintiffs to present evidence.
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