Health-care company Johnson & Johnson said today first quarter earnings rose 18 per cent, spurred by strong sales growth of key prescription drugs to treat anemia, schizophrenia and arthritis.
J&J, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, posted a quarterly profit of $1.83 billion compared with $1.55 billion a year earlier.
J&J's healthy performance is bolstered by its lead in the race to launch a drug-coated stent - a revolutionary device that props open clogged heart arteries and delivers a drug to keep them from reclosing.
J&J's global pharmaceutical sales rose to $4.2 billion, resulting in an operational increase of 21.3 per cent over the same period in 2001. The international component of drug sales rose operationally 12.6 per cent, but were partly offset by a negative currency impact of 4.7 percent.
Consumer product sales, including Neutrogena skin care products and J&J's baby care products, rose 0.6 per cent to $1.6 billion. But worldwide sales in the segment declined by 1.7 per cent when currency impacts are factored in.
Shares of the broad-based firm rose 97 cents to $63.13 in active trade today on the New York Stock Exchange, just below its all-time high of $65.85 reached last month.
The stock is up more than 5 per cent since the start of the year, outperforming its sector peers on the American Stock Exchange Pharmaceuticals index, which is off 4 per cent over the same period.