Even as tariffs start to take a toll on Johnson & Johnson’s medtech business—with the threat of pharmaceutical duties not far behind—the New Jersey drug giant is confident it can weather any upcoming trade war turbulence. In fact, the company is boosting its sales guidance for the year following the close of a new neuroscience acquisition.
J&J now expects to generate total operational sales of $91.6 billion to $92.4 billion in 2025, representing a $700 million increase over the forecast it initially unveiled in January, the company said in a Tuesday earnings release (PDF).
J&J’s finance chief, Joseph Wolk, attributed the bump to J&J’s recent acquisition of neuroscience player Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion. The deal, which closed earlier this month, allowed J&J to get its hands on the approved schizophrenia and bipolar disorder med Caplyta.
Caplyta is also in the running for approval in major depressive disorder, which could be atypical antipsychotics’ most lucrative indication yet.
Despite the company’s optimistic guidance, J&J is also factoring in a potential hit from the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs on imports from other countries plus the retaliatory tariffs some of those countries have imposed on the U.S. in turn.
For the coming year, J&J expects to weather a roughly $400 million hit thanks to the tariff situation in the U.S. For now, most of that squeeze will be centered on J&J’s medtech division, Wolk explained on a call with analysts Tuesday.
“At this point, it’s based on the programs that have been announced and the timing that correlates with those programs,” Wolk said of the tariff impact prediction. “So that would be inclusive of Mexican and Canadian import tariffs that are not excluded out of USMCA. It will include—to a very small degree—some of the steel and aluminum tariffs that impact some of our products.”
The forecast also accounts for China tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs China has imposed on the U.S., which Wolk said is “probably the most substantial … in terms of that $400 million,” referring to the cost J&J will now incur shipping its products to China.
CEO's stance on tariffs
J&J’s CEO Joaquin Duato also weighed in on the matter as it could pertain to pharmaceutical tariffs in the future.
“Tariffs can create disruptions in the supply chain, leading to shortages,” the CEO said. “If what you want is to build manufacturing capacity in the U.S., both in medtech and in pharmaceuticals, the most effective answer is not tariffs, but tax policy.”
Duato pointed to President Trump’s 2017 legislation cutting the U.S. corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% as a more favorable policy, noting that the decision has caused investments in domestic life sciences manufacturing to steadily increase since the reform was enacted.
The CEO also linked J&J’s recent announcement that it will invest $55 billion in the U.S. over the next four years to Trump’s 2017 tax policy, rather than the president’s more recent tariffs.
“At the completion of this investment plan, essentially all our advanced medicines that are used in the U.S. will be manufactured in the U.S.,” Duato explained, echoing his earlier stance that “tax policy is a very effective tool to be able to build manufacturing capacity here.”
As for the Trump administration’s newly unveiled Section 232 investigation—under which the Department of Commerce is probing the national security implications of pharma imports—Duato clarified that J&J knew the investigation was going to happen and considers it a “normal” turn of events.
The CEO said he thinks it’s “important that companies in healthcare partner with the administration to look to mitigate some of the vulnerabilities that exist today in our healthcare supply chain.”
J&J’s comments and guidance update come as the company kicks off 2025’s first-quarter earnings round for large drugmakers. For the period, J&J posted operational sales growth of 4.2% to $21.9 billion. The slight uptick is notable given that J&J continues to grapple with mounting biosimilar competition to its megablockbuster Stelara.
Worldwide, Stelara brought home around $1.6 billion in sales during 2025’s first quarter, representing a nearly 34% decline from the same period in 2024. Last year, the drug’s total sales fell roughly 4.6% to $10.4 billion.
Still, the situation was much improved for many of J&J’s other branded drugs, with the company’s innovative medicine division churning out overall growth of 4.2% in the first quarter. Over that stretch, 11 different major pharmaceutical brands turned in double-digit sales increases, J&J said in an earnings presentation (PDF).
Of that clutch of new drugs, cancer meds like Darzalex, Erleada and the CAR-T cell therapy Carvykti did much of the heavy lifting, J&J’s VP of investor relations, Jessica Moore, said on Tuesday’s call. All told, J&J’s oncology division grew first-quarter sales around 20% to $5.68 billion.
J&J’s cardiovascular-metabolic and immunology arms also grew sales by double digits in the first quarter, while the company’s neuroscience, pulmonary hypertension and infectious disease divisions posted more muted gains.