AIDS and Cancer Pills Could Generate $9 Billion in Sales

Johnson & Johnson has received approval to market Edurant, the first new AIDS medicine available to the public since 2008. J&J also plans to introduce four drugs this year that may combine for annual sales of $9 billion. The four new drugs would treat AIDS, prostate cancer, hepatitis C and stroke.

Jami Rubin, a Goldman Sachs analyst, said the J&J medications are “among the most exciting in the industry” and should help the New Jersey-based company outpace profit growth at drugmakers including Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

Christopher Molloy, dean of Rutgers University’s School of Pharmacy, said, “They’ve placed a lot of big bets and four of them are coming in,” said Molloy, a former researcher at Bristol-Myers and J&J, in a telephone interview. “What J&J has been very nimble at is identifying good prospects and bringing them along.”

J&J is the second-biggest seller of health products after Pfizer.

The new medicines will face competition, some from treatments already with a head start in the market, and the company must persuade doctors and patients that the products offer greater benefits than their rivals, Funtleyder said.

J&J's prostate cancer medicine, Zytiga, was cleared for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 28. The company is also awaiting European approval for telaprevir, a treatment for hepatitis C. Johnson & Johnson is also seeking U.S. approval for Xarelto, a blood thinner to prevent strokes.

Edurant will be sold in a combination pill with California-based Gilead Sciences Inc., the world’s largest seller of AIDS drugs.

Analysts predict Edurant and may generate sales of $870 million for J&J in 2015.