As companies across the life sciences space gear up to debut their Q1 earnings, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has kicked off proceedings by posting healthy growth across its pharma portfolio, despite headwinds from Stelara’s (ustekinumab) loss of market exclusivity.
In the first quarter of 2026, J&J achieved sales of $24.1bn – up 9.9% from Q1 in 2025 and higher than analyst expectations of $23.61bn – with the New Jersey-based pharma attaining operational growth of 6.4%. J&J’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) stood at $2.70, beating Wall Street expectations of $2.68.
Burgeoning Q1 sales across J&J's innovative medicines portfolio primarily drove this uptick, as the division saw an 11.2% increase compared with the same quarter in 2025, bringing in $15.4bn.
Growth within this segment was primarily supported by ballooning sales across multiple disease areas. Oncology was a big money maker for J&J in Q1, with multiple myeloma therapies like Darzalex (daratumumab) and Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel), among others, bringing in a total of $6.97bn for the company.
Neuroscience also saw strong growth driven by treatment-resistant depression (TRD) therapy, Spravato (esketamine), while Tremfya (guselkumab) offered a boost to sales within the company’s immunology portfolio.
Despite the overall growth, biosimilar competition for Stelara did cause some headwinds for J&J this quarter – offsetting the pharma’s growth during this period.
Icotyde to drive J&J’s future growth
Amid the backdrop of a generally positive Q1, J&J has boosted its 2026 outlook, forecasting that the company will see operational sales growth of 5.6% – 6.6% rather than the 5.4% – 6.4% predicted in January 2026.
According to J&J’s CEO, Joaquin Duato, the company is on the right track to post double-digit growth by the end of the decade, with the approval and debut of its IL-23 plaque psoriasis pill, Icotyde (icotrokinra), set to plug the sales gap left by Stelara. Currently, GlobalData analysts tout a blockbuster future for the therapy, with 2032 sales expected to reach $4.4bn globally.
In a previous conversation with Pharmaceutical Technology, GlobalData analyst Stephanie Ngan noted that Icotyde’s approval in both the adult and adolescent patient population “immediately casts a wider net” for the drug’s early and broad uptake.
J&J hopes to achieve this amid the backdrop of its Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing deal with the White House, which will see certain branded medicines in the pharma company’s portfolio endure a US price cut in exchange for exemption from 100% tariffs.
