What’s Going On Here?Johnson & Johnson (J&J) reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday, as the healthcare giant sticks with the clean-living habits it picked up over lockdown. What Does This Mean?You’d have thought J&J would’ve made hay during last year’s health crisis, but the pandemic – which put surgeries and treatments on hold – proved just as disruptive for the company as anyone. Now, though, it’s come back swinging: revenue from J&J’s medical device segment grew 8% last quarter versus the same time the year before. The part of J&J’s business that has benefited from all the chaos, meanwhile, is going from strength to strength: the company’s pharmaceutical division – which sold over $500 million worth of its single-shot vaccine last quarter – saw revenue climb 14% from a year ago. Why Should I Care?The bigger picture: Get that vaccine out pronto.
J&J also upped its profit forecast for the full year, probably because its vaccine is still in high demand. Not just domestically, but overseas too: only 3% of adults in low-income countries have had the jab, and J&J’s single-shot offering – which is easier to transport and store than the two-dose alternatives – is the perfect contender to boost that stat (tweet this). It’d better get cracking: economists reckon 16.5 billion more shots will be needed to vaccinate the entire world, on top of the 6.5 billion administered so far.
Zooming out: What goes around keeps coming around.
J&J’s saved plenty of lives with its vaccine, so it’s probably a bit irked that no one can give it a pass for its cancer-causing baby power from a few years back. The company had to set aside $4 billion last year alone to deal with the allegations, and it’s still facing tens of thousands of legal cases. So now, it’s decided to create a separate business altogether – one that has less money to its name in a wily bid to force litigants to settle for less. | 
