J&J promises to seek approval for at least 10 new drugs over the next five years

Johnson & Johnson’s pharma unit is slated to take center stage during an analyst meeting this week. The company is reportedly banking on its drug portfolio to be a major driver of growth over the next five years.  

All told, J&J said that it’s pharma business, Janssen, will deliver at least 10 new marketing applications between this year and 2023. The new drugs will target a range of therapeutic areas and include gene and RNA therapies. J&J will also try to win approval for more than 40 line-extension of its treatments. 

In 2018, about half of J&J’s revenue came from pharma sales. Janssen has already gotten a regulatory nod for two therapies this year — Spravato, a nasal spray for depression and Balversa, a treatment for bladder cancer.  

The renewed emphasis on drug treatments comes as J&J tries to ease investor concerns over the thousands of lawsuits the company is facing related to its talc baby powder. Plaintiffs, who say that the talc baby cancer can be linked to cases of cancer, have argued that J&J knew for decades that the baby powder contained asbestos. But the company has called the allegations an “absurd conspiracy theory.” 

Read the full Reuters report.