Johnson & Johnson, the drugmaker that won approval last week for the first new AIDS medicine since 2008, plans to introduce four drugs this year that may combine for annual sales of $9 billion, helping to offset product recalls and declining profit for medical devices.
The AIDS pill and therapies for prostate cancer, hepatitis C and stroke make New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J’s program “among the most exciting in the industry” and should help it outpace profit growth at drugmakers including Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), said Jami Rubin, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst in New York.
