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A number of U.S. companies with sizable international operations
are booking huge charges related to the new tax law, which
encourages companies to repatriate their offshore earnings.
International operations accounted for nearly a half of J&J's
total fourth-quarter sales of $20.20 billion, which was up 11.5
percent from a year earlier.
Higher sales of cancer drugs Darzalex and Imbruvica, and
psoriasis drug Tremfya helped drive a 17.6 percent rise in
pharmaceuticals sales to $9.68 billion, the company said.
High-margin treatments from Actelion, which was acquired by J&J
for $30 billion in 2016, accounted for about a quarter of the
pharmaceutical unit's sales growth.
Sales at J&J's consumer products unit, which makes Band-Aids,
Neutrogena beauty products and Tylenol, rose 3.1 percent to $3.5
billion.
The net loss was $10.71 billion, or $3.99 per share, for the
latest quarter, compared with a profit of $3.81 billion, or
$1.38 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, J&J earned $1.74 per share, slightly above the
analysts' average estimate of $1.72 per share, according to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
J&J forecast an adjusted profit of $8 to $8.20 per share on
revenue of $80.6 billion to $81.4 billion for 2018.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $7.87 per share
and revenue of $80.7 billion.
Shares of the company were up marginally in premarket trading.
(Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
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