J&J MedTech Sales Reach $33.8 Billion in 2025 as Cardiovascular Grows Nearly 16%

Johnson & Johnson's medical device business posted fourth-quarter 2025 sales of $8.8 billion, up 7.5% from a year earlier, and full-year sales of $33.8 billion, up 6.1%, the company said in its earnings release on Wednesday, January 21.

Excluding currency, MedTech sales grew 5.8% in the quarter and 5.4% for the year. Acquisitions and divestitures, mainly Shockwave Medical, added 1.1 percentage points to full-year operational growth, J&J said. Growth was driven mainly by electrophysiology products and Abiomed in cardiovascular, and by wound closure products in general surgery.

Cardiovascular leads, orthopaedics stalls

Cardiovascular sales reached $8.93 billion in 2025, up 15.8%, making it the only J&J medtech unit to grow by double digits, MedTech Dive reported. Abiomed and Shockwave, for which J&J paid nearly $30 billion combined, each topped $1 billion in sales for the year.

Electrophysiology sales grew 7% to $5.63 billion, and growth slowed in the fourth quarter compared with the second and third quarters, according to MedTech Dive. Competitors including Boston Scientific have grown quickly with pulsed field ablation. J&J's Varipulse pulsed field ablation system has been used in nearly 40,000 patients with atrial fibrillation, and chief executive Joaquin Duato said J&J expects to release a new pulsed field ablation catheter every year through the end of the decade, the outlet reported.

Orthopaedics sales grew 1.1% to $9.26 billion. J&J said in October that it would separate the business into a stand-alone company; chief financial officer Joe Wolk said the separation is expected in mid-2027, according to MedTech Dive.

Tim Schmid, J&J's worldwide chairman of medtech, told investors that about half of the company's medtech assets now compete in higher-growth markets, compared with about 20% in 2018, and that the share is expected to rise above 70% after the orthopaedics separation. "As a result, we believe, frankly, that our best days are ahead," he said on the earnings call, as reported by MedTech Dive.

Company results and 2026 guidance

Across the whole company, fourth-quarter sales rose 9.1% to $24.6 billion, with earnings per share of $2.10 and adjusted earnings per share of $2.46. Full-year sales rose 6.0% to $94.2 billion, J&J said. Pharmaceutical sales, reported as Innovative Medicine, were $15.8 billion in the quarter.

For 2026, J&J forecast reported sales of $100.0 billion to $101.0 billion, or $100.5 billion at the midpoint, an increase of 6.7%, and adjusted earnings per share of $11.43 to $11.63. The company did not give a separate sales forecast for MedTech in the release.

Among device milestones, the release listed J&J's submission of its OTTAVA robotic surgical system to the FDA and an FDA approval for its TRUFILL n-BCA liquid embolic system for symptomatic chronic subdural hematoma.

"2025 was a catapult year for Johnson & Johnson, fueled by the strongest portfolio and pipeline in our history," Duato said in the release.