Johnson & Johnson Targets Double-Digit Growth as STELARA Faces Biosimilar Competition

Key Points

• Johnson & Johnson raised its growth ambitions, forecasting 6.5% adjusted operational sales growth and 7.3% adjusted EPS growth in 2026, with revenue expected to surpass $100 billion. Executives see 2027 improving further and aim for double-digit growth by the end of the decade despite STELARA biosimilar competition.
• The company plans to detail its long-term growth strategy at an enterprise review in December, highlighting new product launches, a pipeline that includes 12 proof-of-concept molecules in Phase III, and the durability of growth beyond 2030.
• Capital spending is focused on Innovative Medicine and MedTech launches, including ICOTYDE, cancer treatments, and the OTTAVA robotic surgical system. J&J also expects continued momentum from its myeloma therapies, ICOTYDE’s expanding coverage, and MedTech products, while using acquisitions mainly to support growth beyond the current decade.

Johnson & Johnson NYSE: JNJ executives said the company remains on track to grow through biosimilar competition for STELARA and expects its portfolio of medicines, medical devices and pipeline programs to support accelerating growth through the end of the decade.

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley event, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Joaquin Duato said the company has become more focused around three Innovative Medicine areas—oncology, immunology and neuroscience—and three MedTech areas: vision, surgery and cardiovascular.

Duato said Johnson & Johnson beat analyst expectations for revenue and earnings in the first two quarters of 2026 and raised its outlook. The company’s current guidance calls for 6.5% adjusted operational sales growth and 7.3% adjusted earnings-per-share growth in 2026, with total revenue expected to exceed $100 billion for the first time.

“We see 2027 being a better year than 2026, and we have line of sight to double-digit growth by the end of the decade,” Duato said.

December review to address growth outlook

Johnson & Johnson plans to hold an enterprise business review in early December, an event it conducts every three years. Duato said the company intends to provide investors with more detail on the drivers of its goal for double-digit growth by the end of the decade, including its existing portfolio, new product launches and pipeline.

The company also plans to discuss the durability of growth beyond 2030, with additional information on earlier-stage pipeline assets.

John Reed, executive vice president of Innovative Medicine and R&D, said the company has 12 molecules that have achieved proof of concept and are in Phase III development. He added that, beyond DARZALEX, Johnson & Johnson has 10 marketed medicines that are still early in their product life cycles and growing.

Capital allocation priorities emphasize launches and pipeline

Duato said Johnson & Johnson’s first capital-allocation priority is supporting new product launches in Innovative Medicine and MedTech. He cited the launches of ICOTYDE, an oral IL-23 peptide; INLEXZO for bladder cancer; RYBREVANT in lung cancer; IMAAVY in rheumatological indications; and the OTTAVA soft-tissue robotic surgical system.

The company’s second priority is funding its pipeline, including multiple late-stage programs and parallel development across indications, he said. Johnson & Johnson is also seeking earlier-stage business-development opportunities that could benefit from its research, manufacturing and commercial scale.

Duato said the company can achieve double-digit growth this decade without acquisitions, but views M&A as a way to reinforce growth into the following decade. Recent transactions included the acquisition of Halda Therapeutics and Firefly Bio, as well as a collaboration with an option to acquire Sail.

Reed described Halda’s RIPTAC platform as an oral-drug approach that brings proteins together to selectively kill cancer cells. Its first program targets the androgen receptor in prostate cancer and is moving into Phase III, he said. An estrogen-receptor program for breast cancer is in early clinical development.

Firefly’s degrader-antibody conjugate platform includes a preclinical pan-KRAS degrader that Johnson & Johnson expects to enter the clinic early next year, Reed said. The company is also pursuing viral and non-viral approaches to in vivo CAR-T therapies, with clinical programs expected to begin later this year or early next year.

Myeloma strategy moves advanced treatments earlier

Duato said DARZALEX FASPRO remains central to Johnson & Johnson’s multiple myeloma franchise. About 90% of patients are already using the subcutaneous formulation, which reduces treatment time from hours to minutes, he said. The company expects close to all patients to be on DARZALEX FASPRO by the time intravenous biosimilars enter the market.

The company is moving CARVYKTI and its bispecific therapies TECVAYLI and TALVEY into second-line treatment. Reed said the MajesTEC-3 study of DARZALEX plus TECVAYLI showed a progression-free-survival hazard ratio of about 0.11 versus standard care in patients who had not received DARZALEX or remained sensitive to it.

For patients refractory to DARZALEX, Reed said the MajesTEC-6 study combining TECVAYLI and TALVEY also produced hazard ratios near 0.1 in the second-line setting. Johnson & Johnson is also developing its trispecific candidate ramantamig for frontline therapy. Reed said early results of ramantamig combined with DARZALEX in newly diagnosed patients showed 100% minimal residual disease negativity.

ICOTYDE launch and MedTech outlook

Duato said approximately 17,000 patients have been treated with ICOTYDE, with about 7,000 prescribers. About 60% of treated patients were systemic-treatment naive, he said. The product now has full U.S. commercial coverage, and the company expects sales to improve as coverage translates into paid prescriptions.

Johnson & Johnson expects to report psoriatic arthritis data before year-end that could support a filing, while Phase III studies in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are progressing. Reed said enrollment has exceeded expectations, which he attributed in part to demand for an oral treatment option.

In MedTech, Duato said the company expects second-half growth at a pace similar to the first half. The limited market release of OTTAVA will initially focus on system performance, customer experience, clinical evidence and expanding indications rather than placement volume. He also highlighted electrophysiology catheter launches and continued market-share gains in contact lenses and intraocular lenses.

About Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson NYSE: JNJ is a global healthcare company that develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical and medical device products. Founded in 1886 and headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the company serves patients, healthcare professionals and institutions in markets around the world.

Johnson & Johnson operates through two primary business segments: Innovative Medicine and MedTech. Innovative Medicine focuses on prescription treatments in areas including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, infectious diseases, and pulmonary hypertension.

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