NEW JERSEY: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) says that its medical device unit underperformed in the second quarter of this financial year (2Q26), even as strong sales of Tremfya for autoimmune conditions and cancer treatment Darzalex helped it beat Wall Street estimates.
United States demand for its Impella heart pumps, acquired through its US$16.6bil 2022 buyout of Abiomed, dropped in 2Q26 by 2% after having grown 14% during 1Q26, it said.
J&J’s chief financial officer Joseph Wolk said that Abiomed revenue took a hit following the release of a UK study that raised questions about the use of Impella pumps during certain high-risk coronary procedures.
Wolk said J&J expects the franchise to return to growth, aided by additional data expected in the first half of next year that could further demonstrate the usefulness of the pumps.
“When you have 28 platforms that generate at least US$1bil in revenue on an annual basis, we’re not dependent on one asset,” Wolk said.
Shares of the company closed 2.7% lower at US$247.02.
Still, the company said it is not seeing evidence of a slowdown of procedures using its medical devices after Hospital operator HCA Healthcare warned on Tuesday of weaker surgical volumes and more patients dropping out of Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans.
That pushed shares down in J&J and other medtech companies such as Stryker and Intuitive Surgical .
“Procedure volumes continue to be stable,” J&J executive vice-president Tim Schmid said in a conference call with investors.
“We have not observed any meaningful impact on procedure volumes across our portfolio related to the ACA.” — Reuters
