Can J&J Sustain Its Double-Digit Oncology Growth Streak?

Johnson & Johnson JNJ is one of the key pharmaceutical players in the oncology segment with significant expertise in blood cancers and solid tumors. It is the #1 company in multiple myeloma, with key drug Darzalex being considered the foundational gold standard treatment. Darzalex generated more than $14 billion in sales in 2025, rising 22% year over year and still going strong.

Its Oncology segment comprises around 27% of total revenues and 42% of its Innovative Medicine segment sales. Its oncology sales rose 20.9% on an operational basis in 2025, driven by strong market growth and share gains of key products such as Darzalex and prostate cancer drug, Erleada. The sales growth was partially dampened by lower sales of Imbruvica.

Three of J&J’s new cancer drugs are Carvykti, a BCMA CAR-T therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, Tecvayli for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and Talvey, a novel bispecific therapy for heavily pretreated multiple myeloma. These drugs also contributed to top-line growth in 2026. Combined, they generated $3.0 billion in sales in 2025.

J&J expects the momentum to continue and targets its oncology sales to reach $50 billion by 2030. Though quite bullish, J&J seems quite confident that it can meet the target, citing strong growth in its marketed cancer drugs and new launches like Inlexzoh/TAR-200 in high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and the subcutaneous formulation of Rybrevant plus Lazcluze for advanced EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.

Inlexzoh, which was initially approved in the United States in September last year, is the first-of-its-kind drug-releasing system to provide sustained local delivery of a cancer treatment directly into the bladder. The subcutaneous formulation of Rybrevant plus Lazcluze was approved in the EU in April 2025 and in the United States in December 2025.

J&J believes its new cancer drugs, Talvey, Tecvayli and Rybrevant plus Lazcluze, have the potential to deliver peak sales of $5 billion.

Meanwhile, J&J’s oncology pipeline has gained strong momentum in the last couple of years with promising developments in colorectal and head and neck cancers. J&J is also building its oncology pipeline through M&A deals. Last year, it acquired Halda Therapeutics, which added a promising clinical-stage treatment for prostate cancer with potential across multiple tumor types.

Competition in the Oncology Space

Other large players in the oncology space are Pfizer PFE, AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Bristol-Myers.

Oncology sales comprise around 27% of Pfizer’s total revenues. Its oncology revenues grew 8% in 2025, driven by drugs like Xtandi, Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev, which made up for declining sales of drugs like Ibrance. Pfizer also has a robust pipeline of cancer candidates with a focus on multiple modalities, including small molecules, ADCs and immuno-oncology biologics.

For AstraZeneca, oncology sales now comprise around 44% of total revenues. Sales in its oncology segment rose 14% at constant exchange rate (CER) in 2025. AstraZeneca’s strong oncology performance was driven by medicines such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo).

Merck’s key oncology medicines are PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounts for more than 50% of Merck’s pharmaceutical sales. Keytruda recorded sales of $31.7 billion in 2025, up 7% year over year.

Bristol-Myers’ key cancer drug is PD-L1 inhibitor, Opdivo, which accounts for around 21% of its total revenues. Opdivo’s sales rose 8% to $10 billion in 2025.

JNJ’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

J&J’s shares have outperformed the industry in the past year. The stock has risen 51% in the past year compared with a 12.7% appreciation of the industry.

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From a valuation standpoint, J&J is slightly expensive. Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 21.11 forward earnings, higher than 18.69 for the industry. The stock is also trading above its five-year mean of 15.65.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings has risen from $11.49 to $11.54 over the past 60 days, while that for 2027 has gone up from $12.24 per share to $12.40 per share over the same timeframe.

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J&J has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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