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Prescription drugs, medical devices boost J&J in Q4

Johnson's brand moisturizing oil, left, and soap, right, by Johnson & Johnson, sit together, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, in Walpole, Mass. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, reported fourth-quarter profit of $4.74 billion, or $1.77. Adjusted for one-time charges, per-share earnings were $2.13, a penny better than expected on Wall Street, according to analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne, Copyright 2021The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Growing prescription drug and medical device sales nudged Johnson & Johnson past fourth-quarter earnings expectations, and the health care giant's COVID-19 vaccine gained momentum as well.

J&J's one-shot vaccine rang up $1.62 billion in sales in the last quarter of 2021, or more than double what it had recorded before the quarter, as drugstores and clinics started doling out booster shots.

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The vaccine debuted last year and wound up bringing in $2.38 billion, or slightly less than what company leaders have said they expected. J&J said Tuesday that it forecasts vaccine sales of $3 billion to $3.5 billion this year too, as countries continue to fight variants of the coronavirus.

Much of J&J's vaccine sales came from outside the United States, where regulators said last month that most Americans should receive vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna instead of J&J’s version due to a rare blood clotting problem tied to the shot.

More than 16 million people in the U.S. have become fully vaccinated with the J&J shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That compares to about 194 million who have used either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which require two doses.

J&J has said it doesn't intend to profit from the vaccine.

Aside from growing vaccine sales, Johnson & Johnson also saw sales of its blood cancer treatment Darzalex jump 31% to about $1.65 billion.

Total sales from the company’s largest business, pharmaceuticals, jumped more than 16% to $14.29 billion in the quarter. Medical device sales also grew 4% to about $6.9 billion, even though the segment was still hurt by the ongoing pandemic, which has forced patients and hospitals to postpone surgeries and other care.

Johnson & Johnson said in November it will focus on those two segments by splitting off its consumer health business, which sells Band Aids and beauty products, into a separate, publicly traded company.

J&J has said it expects that separation to take place over the next couple years.

That segment brought in $3.66 billion in sales during the quarter.

Overall, the world’s biggest maker of health care products earned $4.74 billion in the fourth quarter, while sales grew 10% to $24.8 billion.

Research and development expenses also jumped 17% to $4.7 billion in the quarter.

Adjusted earnings totaled $2.13 per share, or a penny better than expected. Wall Street had expected revenue of $25.28 billion, according to FactSet.

In the full year, Johnson & Johnson earned $20.88 billion — a 42% increase from 2020 — as the company had more than a dozen prescription drugs top $1 billion in sales.

J&J also debuted a strong 2022 forecast of per-share earnings between $10.40 and $10.60. That's better than the $10.35 Wall Street had been projecting.

Shares of New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, which is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, climbed 1.7% to $165.70 in late morning trading Tuesday. The Dow and other broader indexes were down 1% or more.

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Follow Tom Murphy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thpmurphy


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