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J&J Looks to Fend Off Challenges to Key Drugs, Consumer Products

J&J Falls After Fourth-Quarter Sales Miss Analysts’ Target

(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson posted weaker-than-expected sales in the final quarter of 2019, raising the stakes for the health-care conglomerate as it banks on new cancer and immunology drugs to replace a group of aging blockbusters.

Some of the company’s most lucrative medicines are facing competition from generics and biosimilars. Arthritis drug Remicade’s sales fell more than 16% from a year earlier in the quarter, while Zytiga, an older treatment for prostate cancer, saw a nearly 14% decline.

At the same time, J&J’s storied consumer businesses are also being pressed by upstarts. Sales of its baby-care products declined more than 26% in the U.S. as consumers increasingly look for alternatives to the company’s shampoos, lotions and other one-time medicine-cabinet staples.

As the company adapts to those changes, it also is confronting increasing political blowback over high drug prices, trade turbulence and a series of lawsuits tied to a range of its products, from opioids to baby powder.

“We face a variety of challenges from debates about the health-care system in our country to uncertainty with global trade to today’s litigious environment, to name a few,” said Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky on a conference call with investors Wednesday.

Overall, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $20.75 billion, just short of the $20.87 billion analysts had expected.

J&J shares declined 0.9% to $147.93 at 10:47 a.m. in New York on Wednesday. They had advanced 16% in the past 12 months through Tuesday’s close.

Income Driver

In the year ahead, J&J is likely to draw much of its growth from sales of cancer and immunology drugs. For 2020, adjusted earnings per share are expected to be $8.95 to $9.10. Heading into Wednesday’s results, Wall Street analysts had expected $9.09, on average.

Indeed, such drugs were already a bright spot in the fourth quarter. Sales of Stelara, a treatment for psoriasis, jumped 18% to $1.7 billion. Cancer drug Darzalex brought in $830 million in the quarter, up 42% from a year ago.

“Darzalex is transforming the field of multiple myeloma right now,” Jan G. J. van de Winkel, the CEO of Danish biotech Genmab, which collaborated with J&J’s Janssen unit to develop Darzalex, said in an interview last week. “It’s a substantial income driver that any company would be happy about.”

Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said J&J is focused on highlighting such best-in-class assets, while potentially shedding those that are growing more slowly.

“We continually look and manage our portfolio in a very rigorous fashion, making sure that we are the best owners of the assets that we have on that,” he said on Wednesday. “That works both ways. So we look to complement our portfolio, but we’ll also look to take underperforming businesses and create value for shareholders in other ways.”

Other Headwinds

Gorsky told investors on Wednesday he was “extremely proud overall with the performance of our pharmaceutical group,” but was particularly impressed with the immunology vertical’s ability to mitigate biosimilar impact on Remicade.

“Despite the mixed results” this quarter, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen said she would continue to recommend J&J “as one of our top ideas in 2020.” Chen has an overweight rating on the stock.

Concerns about the company’s legal exposure have cast a shadow over its shares at times. J&J has been fighting more than 100,000 suits alleging injuries and illnesses caused by its baby powder, opioid painkillers and other products, though it’s scored a few wins in the courtroom of late.

The company had about $5.1 billion in litigation expenses in 2019, it said Wednesday, including a $4 billion charge associated with a proposed deal to resolve all claims accusing the company of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic. A final agreement has yet to be reached.

--With assistance from Jef Feeley.

To contact the reporter on this story: Riley Griffin in New York at rgriffin42@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark Schoifet

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