J&J’s innovative medicines carried Q3 as medtech disappoints, but newer medicines absent

J&J’s innovative medicines carried Q3 as medtech disappoints, but newer medicines absent October 13, 2026 | 3 min read | Annalee Armstrong Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Email Print While innovative medicine supported Johnson & Johnson’s “in line” earnings for the third quarter of 2026, investors were disappointed to see older medicines carrying the bag. Johnson & Johnson’s shares slipped about 4% on third quarter earnings, as underperformance for the healthcare giant’s medtech unit outweighed decent performance for the innovative medicines segment.J&J reported just 2.5% year-on-year growth for its medtech segment, falling 2% below consensus expectations at $8.64 billion for the third quarter. Meanwhile, the innovative medicines group grew about 8% compared to Q3 2025 to $16.76 billion.

The company reported overall Q3 revenue of $25.4 billion, which landed about 4% above consensus expectations thanks to lower costs and tax expenses, Leerink Partners said in a Tuesday morning note.The medtech results put executives on their back foot and pushed the shares down to about $253 apiece as the markets opened. CFO Joseph Wolk admitted the medtech results were disappointing but pledged to right the ship there through internal investments. That left the therapeutics division holding the bag for J&J this quarter.

Immunology blockbuster Tremfya was the standout with a 68% year over year increase in sales for just under $2.4 billion in worldwide sales for the quarter, according to analysts. Older medicines like Stelara and Simponi also contributed. J&J’s top-selling product was the blood cancer therapy Darzalex, which grew 15% since Q3 last year for $4.24 billion worldwide.Guggenheim declared J&J’s overall results “generally in line,” but noted some pieces that were “a little disappointing.” Investors would have preferred to see more contribution from other newer medicines in J&J’s portfolio.

Stelara was first approved in 2009 while Tremfya earned its first FDA nod in 2017.Analysts pushed for details during the earnings call on the pharma’s fresher assets, such as the multiple myeloma medicine Tecvayli, which was first approved in 2022 and cleared for second-line treatment this past March. The drug brought in $312 million worldwide this quarter, compared to $177 million in Q3 last year, marking growth of 77%. Ryan Koors, VP, investor relations, attributed this climb to the new indication and earlier lines of treatment.

Earnings Analysts eye RevMed’s pancreatic cancer launch, Merck’s data blitz for Q3 earnings Bellwether Johnson & Johnson will kick off the third quarter earnings reporting period on Tuesday, with analysts searching for news on business development, launch execution and more. October 13, 2026 · 4 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read more “Our multiple myeloma portfolio and pipeline are unmatched,” CEO Joaquin Duato declared on the call. About 80% of patients are receiving one of J&J’s products, which also includes Darzalex, during their treatment, the CEO noted.

Elsewhere, Wolk said that Icotyde, which was approved in March for plaque psoriasis, is “off to a strong start.” Specific results were not shared, but J&J has set expectations for sales of $10 billion for the Protagonist Therapeutics–partnered asset.“We do foresee Icotyde to be one of our biggest assets in innovative medicine, and it is off to an incredibly great start,” echoed Tom Cavanaugh, executive VP and worldwide chairman of Innovative Medicine. About 20,000 patients have initiated therapy with about 9,000 prescribers already. This is “tracking better than most/all launches in psoriatic diseases,” he added.To help build the pipeline, J&J has executed a few deals over the past year.

The most recent, the acquisition of Firefly Bio and a licensing deal with Sail Biomedicines, closed in the third quarter. Each was worth about $1 billion and together the deals resulted in an impairment charge of $339 million.J&J also finally settled decades-long litigation over its talc products, which added a further $5.52 billion in charges. Because of these charges, earnings per share dropped to about 9 cents, a 95% decline from the same period a year ago when EPS was $2.12.

Net earnings also declined dramatically in Q3 from $5.15 billion a year ago to just $210 million. Subscribe to BioPharm Executive! Market insights, trending business and policy stories for biopharma leaders Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Email Print Annalee Armstrong Annalee Armstrong is an award-winning biopharma journalist covering the business of drug development.

She has been a journalist for more than 18 years, covering the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for the last eight. She is senior editor at BioSpace and curates the Biopharm Executive newsletter every Wednesday. You can reach her at annalee.armstrong@biospace.com.

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