Covid vaccine sales fueled beat, but no sales ahead

The Janssen Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

International Covid vaccine sales helped spark Johnson & Johnson‘s revenue and earnings beat on Tuesday, but the corporate said it expects no sales from the shot moving forward. 

“Regarding our Covid-19 vaccine, we don’t anticipate material sales beyond that which were recorded in the primary quarter as our contractual commitments are complete,” Joseph Wolk, the chief financial officer, said during a conference call Tuesday.

Those commitments include external manufacturing exit costs and clinical-trial expenses, the buyer staples giant said in its first-quarter earnings release.

That marks the tip of a rocky three years for J&J’s Covid vaccine despite being certainly one of the primary shots to enter the U.S. market through the pandemic. The vaccine, initially billed as a single-dose regimen, has long been overshadowed by the marginally more practical shots from Pfizer and Moderna as a consequence of a rare but serious risk of a blood-clotting disorder.

J&J’s unpopular shot appeared to bear its last fruit Tuesday, contributing $747 million in sales through the three-month period ended March 23. That drove strong growth in the corporate’s pharmaceutical business, which saw sales grow greater than 4% over the identical period last 12 months.  

Notably, all Covid vaccine revenue through the quarter got here from outside of the U.S. It’s unclear which countries contributed to the sales.

That revenue number trounced estimates of Wall Street analysts. 

Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham had expected the shot to usher in $150 million in sales through the quarter. A forecast by Wells Fargo analysts did “not assume any Covid sales in Q1,” but noted that some revenue from contract commitments could “pull through.”

After J&J reported earnings, SVB Securities analyst David Risinger also noted that sales of the vaccine beat a consensus estimate by greater than $500 million. JP Morgan analyst Chris Schott added that J&J’s first-quarter beat was partly “driven by Covid vaccine upside.”

First-quarter sales of the Covid vaccine are also up from the $544 million it raked in during J&J’s last quarter, and the $457 million the corporate reported a 12 months ago. 

The last time J&J reported U.S. sales of the vaccine was through the second quarter of 2022, which ended weeks after a Food and Drug Administration decision that strictly limited who can receive the shot. The agency said the vaccine can only be given to adults who specifically request it or cannot receive a unique shot, pointing to the danger of blood clots. 

Earlier this 12 months, the drugmaker also announced it scaled back production of the shot amid slumping demand.

While J&J’s vaccine fell out of favor within the U.S. and other wealthy countries, developing countries have continued to depend on it. As a single shot, the vaccine is inexpensive and easier to distribute to hard-to-reach populations.