Joseph J. Wolk
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Johnson & Johnson
Thank you, Jess; and thank you all for joining today's call. We are pleased to report another quarter of strong operational performance across our business. The results reflect the strength and versatility of Johnson & Johnson and our commitment to improving healthcare outcomes around the world.
2023 has many important catalysts that can drive meaningful near and long term value for Johnson & Johnson shareholders. We remain focused on the successful separation of our Consumer Health business, Kenvue, which will position both companies to be more agile, focused and competitive. We are also expecting a number of pipeline advancements that will provide increased confidence in our Pharmaceutical and MedTech businesses.
Our Pharmaceutical segment delivered a strong first quarter. Growth from our Pharmaceutical business continues to be driven by key assets in our existing portfolio, including DARZALEX, TREMFYA, ERLEADA, INVEGA SUSTENNA and UPTRAVI, as well as uptake from new launches such as SPRAVATO, CARVYKTI and TECVAYLI.
2023 is an important year of scientific innovation for our Pharmaceutical business. And in Q1, we announced that CARVYKTI, our BCMA cell therapy, met its primary endpoint in the CARTITUDE-4 study, a Phase 3 trial in multiple myeloma patients who have received one to three prior lines of therapy. We look forward to presenting these results in an upcoming major medical meeting.
Additionally, our partners at Protagonist Therapeutics announced positive top line results from the Phase 2b FRONTIER 1 study of our oral IL-23 in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. We look forward to sharing this data and future development plans at an upcoming medical meeting.
Finally, as we continually review our portfolio to prioritize the most transformational assets for ongoing investment and an assessment of the RSV vaccine landscape, the Company made a decision to discontinue its investigational RSV adult vaccine program. This decision is part of a broader effort to make strategic choices for our pipeline and R&D investments to focus on medicines with the greatest potential benefit to patients.
Looking at the rest of the year, we expect important data from key pipeline assets such as nipocalimab and TREMFYA, as well as the potential approval of talquetamab.
Importantly, I want to mention two additional highlights. First, the MARIPOSA study of RYBREVANT plus lazertinib in frontline non-small cell lung cancer remains on track with the potential for final analysis later this year. We are also excited to present data from the SunRISe-1 study of TAR-200 in muscle invasive bladder cancer at the American Urological Association's Annual Meeting this month, which demonstrated a promising complete response and safety profile.
Regarding our Pharmaceutical business, I'd like to reiterate some comments I recently made at the Cowen Investor Conference in March related to the strengthening of the US dollar and the impact on the 2025 Pharmaceutical sales goal the team put forth during the 2021 Investor Day. While we don't speculate on currency, based on the current rates, the 2025 sales target of $60 billion is approximately $57 billion on a constant-currency basis. In 2022 alone, FX had a negative impact of roughly $3 billion in Pharmaceuticals.
Well, that is the math qualitatively. Since 2021, a number of things have changed in our portfolio. On the plus side, we've seen acceleration of some current and potential upcoming launches like TECVAYLI and talquetamab, but to be balanced we've also experienced competitive pressure on IMBRUVICA above what was anticipated in 2021. So many push and pulls, but we are striving to attain our operational goals. We are confident in our ability to exceed 2025 estimates the Street has out there today of approximately $54 billion.
MedTech delivered a strong quarter of sales growth. We continue to advance key pipeline programs. For example, within our Electrophysiology business, we reached a few milestones this quarter related to our pulsed field ablation pipeline programs, including the European clinical study inspIRE, which achieved early success by meeting both primary safety and efficacy endpoints.
Additionally, we announced completion of the first procedures in the European SmartfIRE clinical study, evaluating the safety and effectiveness of our investigational dual energy catheter, which combines both pulsed field and radio-frequency ablation capabilities.
As you know, we continue to prioritize investment in high-growth areas, as demonstrated by our acquisition of Abiomed, which closed this past December. With Abiomed, MedTech now has 12 platforms with over $1 billion in annual sales. While it is still early days, we are pleased with the integration and performance of Abiomed. Patient utilization of Abiomed technologies grew mid to-high teens in both Europe and the United States and over 30% in Japan. We continue to see strong adoption of newer technologies such as Impella 5.5 and we achieved record quarterly enrollment in both the STEMI DTU and PROTECT IV pivotal trials as we continue to advance efforts in pursuit of Class I guidelines. For perspective, operational sales growth compared to the same quarter last year reported by Abiomed as a standalone company was 22%.
In Orthopedics, just this month, we obtained CE Mark for the VELYS Robotic assisted solution, positioning us to expand our international footprint with this differentiated solution in total knee. Finally, the MedTech team is excited by the progress being made in regards to the Ottava general surgery robotic solution and we remain on track to share more information in the second half of this year.
Our Consumer Health business delivered double-digit first quarter sales growth driven by strategic price actions, strong demand and some stock replenishment. We remain on track to complete the separation of this business in 2023, assuming accommodative market conditions. Since the start of the year, we have been operating our Consumer Health business as a company within a company, and continue to update our Form S1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, giving us the opportunity to pursue an initial public offering as a potential first step in the separation. Standup costs and stranded costs remain consistent with what we have stated previously with an active program well underway to reduce the stranded costs.
Turning to notable enterprise events. I'd like to briefly touch on LTL's refiling for bankruptcy on April 4th. Neither LTL's original filing nor this refiling is an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, nor an indication that the company has changed its long-standing position that its talcum powder products are safe. Our goal continues to be for an equitable and efficient resolution of the cosmetic talc litigation against the company. And we believe this refiling represents progress towards that goal.
As a reminder, LTL's bankruptcy filing will not have an impact upon the Kenvue separation and the talc liabilities in the United States and Canada will remain with Johnson & Johnson. As part of the refiling, we have proposed a reorganization plan that has significant support from claimants and includes payment of $8.9 billion in present value over a 25-year period. LTL will continue to work through the process set forth by the Bankruptcy Court and expects to present the reorganization plan to the Court in mid-May.
Our capital allocation priorities remain consistent. And in 2022, we successfully executed against all pillars. R&D investment remains our number one priority and driver of long-term growth and value creation. We know the value our investors place on our dividend and we were pleased to announce this morning that our Board of Directors has authorized a 5.3% increase, marking our 61st consecutive year of dividend increases. In addition, we continuously evaluate strategic business development opportunities that enable Johnson & Johnson to create value for patients, customers and shareholders.
Our final priority is share repurchase programs, when appropriate. In fact, this past quarter, we completed the $5 billion share repurchase program announced late last year. We are confident in our strong financial position, including our AAA rated balance sheet and our ability to deploy capital across all our strategic priorities. We believe this strength differentiates Johnson & Johnson and enables us to pull the appropriate levers to set us up for long-term success.
Moving on to our full-year 2023 guidance for the enterprise. Based on our strong start to the year, we are pleased to raise our guidance. We now expect operational sales growth for the full-year 2023 up 1 percentage point in the range of 5.5% to 6.5% or up $1 billion in a range of $97.9 billion to $98.9 billion on a constant-currency basis and adjusted operational sales growth up 1 percentage point in the range of 4.5% to 5.5%.
Our sales guidance continues to exclude contribution from the COVID-19 vaccine. As you know, we don't speculate on future currency movements. Last quarter, we noted that we utilize the euro spot rate relative to the US dollar at 1.08. The euro spot rate as of late last week was 1.10. We continue to estimate there would be minimal impact from foreign currency translation on reported sales for the year as the dollar has strengthened versus other select currencies.
We are maintaining the guidance we provided in January for our adjusted pretax operating margin, other income and expense, interest expense and tax rate. We are also increasing our adjusted earnings per share guidance by $0.05 per share and tightening the range to $10.50 to $10.60, or $10.55 at the midpoint on a constant-currency basis, reflecting operational or constant-currency growth of approximately 3.5% to 4.5%, or 4% at the midpoint.
While not predicting the impact of currency movements, assuming recent exchange rates I previously referenced, our reported adjusted earnings per share for the year would be favorably impacted by approximately $0.05 per share. This favorable currency impact coupled with our strong operational outlook results in an increase to our reported adjusted earnings per share for the year by $0.10 per share and tightening the range to $10.60 to $10.70, or $10.65 at the midpoint, reflecting growth of approximately 4.5% to 5.5%, or 5% at the midpoint.
While we do not provide guidance by segment or on a quarterly basis, I'd like to provide some qualitative considerations for your modeling. In Pharmaceuticals, we maintain our expectation of delivering above-market growth in 2023, driven by key assets and continued uptake of our newly-launched products. This growth considers the potential composition-of-matter patent expiry of STELARA, which we currently assume will occur in late-2023 in the United States.
Further, we continue to expect 2023 impact from other post-LOE products including REMICADE, ZYTIGA and XEPLION, as well as increased austerity measures across Europe. Regarding our COVID-19 vaccine, we do not anticipate material sales beyond that, which were recorded in the first quarter as our contractual commitments are complete.
In MedTech, we expect continued competitive growth fueled by increased procedures, the commercial uptake of recently launched products. We anticipate relatively stable procedure volumes and healthcare staffing levels for the remainder of the year with normal seasonality. Regarding quarterly phasing, given the strength of our first quarter results, we now expect relatively consistent performance throughout the year from our Pharmaceutical and MedTech businesses. When modeling Consumer Health growth rates in 2023, it is important to take into consideration Prior year comparisons, as well as the robust cough, cold and flu season and the one-time restocking that occurred in the first quarter. As a reminder, the first half of 2022 was impacted by supply constraints.
A few brief announcements before we take your questions. Continuing our efforts to increase our transparency and assist with your modeling, we are planning to post a patent table, including US pharmaceutical patents to our investor website in the quarter. In addition, please mark your calendars for December 5th as we will be hosting an Enterprise Business Review at the New York Stock Exchange, focused on the New Johnson & Johnson highlighting both our Pharmaceutical and MedTech businesses. We will provide additional details about the event in the coming months.
Before we turn to your questions, let me state how proud we are regarding our team's continued hard work and unwavering commitment. Our sights are set on the future, focused on delivering competitive growth for the new Johnson & Johnson. We are confident that our current plans position us for near-term success, long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders.
I'll now turn the discussion to the Q&A portion of the call. Kevin, can you please provide instructions for those wishing to ask a question?
