Jessica Moore
Vice President, Investor Relations at Johnson & Johnson
Thank you, Joe. A few logistics before we get into the details. This review is being made available via webcast, accessible through the Investor Relations section of the Johnson & Johnson website at investor.jnj.com where you can also find additional materials including today's presentation and associated schedules. Please note that today's presentation includes forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, our future operating and financial performance and the anticipated separation of the company's Consumer Health business.
We encourage you to review the cautionary statement included in today's presentation which identifies certain risks and factors that may cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected. In particular, there is significant uncertainty about the duration and contemplated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other marketplace dynamics. This means that results could change at any time, and the contemplated impact of COVID-19 on the company's business results and outlook is a best estimate based on the information available as of today's date.
A further description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in our SEC filings including our 2021 Form 10-K along with reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures utilized for today's discussions to the most comparable GAAP measures. These materials are also available at investor.jnj.com. Several of the products and compounds discussed today are being developed in collaboration with strategic partners or licensed from other companies. This slide acknowledges those relationships. Moving to today's agenda, I will review the first quarter sales and P&L results for the corporation and the three segments.
Following, Joe will provide additional business and financial commentary before sharing an overview of our cash position, our capital allocation priorities and updated guidance for 2022. The remaining time will be available for your questions. During the Q&A portion of the call, Joe will be joined by Ashley McEvoy, Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chair, MedTech; Thibaut Mongon, Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chair, Consumer Health; and Jennifer Taubert, Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chair, Pharmaceutical. We have heard your feedback and are implementing a few enhancements this quarter.
First, we are now providing select earlier-phase clinical trial information on our pharmaceutical pipeline to streamline your data-collection efforts from clinicaltrials.gov. Second, rather than sharing detailed business performance commentary on each part of the business I will summarize significant business drivers leaving more time for Q&A. You can find additional detailed segment commentary in our earnings presentation. We anticipate the webcast will last up to 60 minutes. Now let's move to the first quarter results. Worldwide sales were $23.4 billion for the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 5% versus the first quarter of 2021.
Operational sales growth, which excludes the effect of translational currency, increased 7.7% as currency had a negative impact of 2.7 points. In the U.S., sales increased 2.7%. In regions outside the U.S., our reported growth was 7.2%. Operational sales growth outside the U.S. was 12.6% with currency negatively impacting our reported O-U.S. results by 5.4 points. Excluding the net impact of acquisition and divestitures, adjusted operational sales growth was 7.9% worldwide, 2.8% in the U.S. and 12.9% outside the U.S. Turning now to earnings. For the quarter, net earnings were $5.1 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.93 versus diluted earnings per share of $2.32 a year ago.
Excluding after-tax intangible asset amortization expense and special items for both periods, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were $7.1 billion, and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $2.67, representing increases of 3% and 3.1% respectively compared to the first quarter of 2021. On an operational basis, adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 6.2%. I will now comment on business segment sales performance highlights. Unless otherwise stated, percentages quoted represent the operational sales change in comparison to the first quarter of 2021 and therefore exclude the impact of currency translation.
Beginning in 2022, certain over-the-counter products previously reported under the Pharmaceutical segment have been re-classed to Consumer Health. These products represent roughly $100 million of sales per quarter. Please refer to the supplemental sales schedules for prior-year restatements. Also, as stated in our 2021 10-K, effective January, our Medical Devices segment is now referred to as MedTech. Beginning with Consumer Health, worldwide Consumer Health sales of $3.6 billion increased 0.8% with a decline of 3.4% in the U.S. and growth of 4.1% outside the U.S. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, worldwide growth was 1.6%.
Consumer Health was negatively impacted by industry-wide external supply constraints primarily due to ingredients and packaging availability as well as labor shortages largely reflected in our Skin Health and Beauty business worth approximately 280 basis points worldwide and 500 basis points in the U.S. Adjusting for these constraints, Consumer Health delivered solid results primarily due to above-market growth in OTC driven by increased TYLENOL, MOTRIN and upper respiratory product sales. Moving on to our Pharmaceutical segment; worldwide Pharmaceutical sales of $12.9 billion increased 9.3% with growth of 2.9% in the U.S. and 16.7% outside of the U.S.
Base Pharmaceutical growth was driven by our broad portfolio of products paired with strong commercial execution, enabling us to deliver above-market adjusted operational sales growth including six assets with double-digit growth in the quarter. Base business growth was due to strength from DARZALEX, TREMFYA, STELARA, ERLEADA and our paliperidone long-acting portfolio. Growth was partially offset by LOE pressures from both REMICADE and ZYTIGA along with decrease in IMBRUVICA and XARELTO sales.
DARZALEX continues to drive very strong operational growth with sales increases of 40.3% driven by subcutaneous formulation penetration and meaningful share gains across all lines of therapy and in all regions. IMBRUVICA sales declined 3.9% worldwide due to increased competition from novel oral agents particularly in the U.S. IMBRUVICA maintained its market leadership position worldwide and continues to drive growth outside of the U.S. despite ongoing competitive pressures. XARELTO sales declined 13.8% in the U.S., driven largely by a net unfavorable prior period price adjustment and increased costs for patient access, partially offset by continued demand and market growth.
The COVID-19 vaccine also contributed approximately $500 million to sales in the quarter. Given these results, we remain confident in our ability to deliver our 11th consecutive year of above market adjusted operational sales growth in 2022. I'll now turn your attention to the MedTech segment. Worldwide MedTech sales of $7 billion increased 8.5% with growth of 5.6% in the U.S. and growth of 11.1% outside the U.S. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, worldwide growth was 8.6%. We see strong performance in Q1 driven by market recovery, focused commercial strategies and differentiated new products driving enhanced or sustained market share across most of the 11 priority platforms.
We continue to monitor potential impacts on elective procedures driven by COVID-19 resurgences across various markets. Before highlighting the financial performance for the segment, I'd like to share a few notable first quarter MedTech events that demonstrate our stated aspirations of entering higher growth market segments and continuing to build upon digital technologies across the portfolio. Two acquisitions were closed in the quarter, CrossRoads Extremity with a differentiated portfolio of bunion and hammertoe solutions in the fast-growing elective foot and ankle market. And CUPTIMIZE, which will be a new addition to the VELYS Digital Surgery platform of connected technologies.
The CUPTIMIZE Solution is designed to give surgeons an easy-to-use tool to better understand and address the impact of abnormal motion between the spine and pelvis in some patients who require total hip arthroplasty and may help reduce the risk of dislocation related to pelvic tilt. I am also pleased to share that Fast Company selected Johnson & Johnson MedTech as one of its top 10 world's Most Innovative Health Companies of 2022, recognizing MedTech's success and commitment to delivering breakthrough scientific innovation and reimagining health in an increasingly digital world.
The Interventional Solutions franchise delivered another quarter of worldwide double-digit growth at 17.4% with double-digit growth in both the U.S. and O-U.S. regions, driven primarily by success of new products in electrophysiology, commercial execution and continued market recovery. Worldwide Surgery grew 5% driven by strong performance in wound closure and biosurgery where we continue to gain market share. Monarch-enabled procedures now exceed 14,000 since launch, providing continued evidence of the adoption of Monarch technology and patient treatment regimens.
The Worldwide Orthopaedics franchise grew 5.6% reflecting COVID-19 recovery, continued penetration in the U.S. Ambulatory Surgery Center channel or ASCs and penetration of new product launches such as enhancements to VELYS hip navigation, VELYS Robotic-Assisted solutions and ATTUNE Cementless Knee System. Partially offsetting this growth was softness in spine procedures in the U.S. The Worldwide Vision franchise continued its double-digit growth, growing 13.9% this quarter. Contact lenses global growth of 10.6% reflects continued positive momentum for our market-leading ACUVUE portfolio, success of commercial initiatives and recently launched products such as ACUVUE OASYS MULTIFOCAL and ACUVUE DEFINE FRESH.
Surgical Vision delivered global growth of 23.8% with both the U.S. and O-U.S. posting growth above 20% fueled by market recovery and share momentum due to the success of recently launched products including TECNIS Eyhance and TECNIS Synergy. As a reminder, additional sales commentary for all of our segments can be found on the slides. Now turning to our consolidated statement of earnings for the first quarter of 2022, I'd like to highlight a few noteworthy items that have changed compared to the same quarter last year. Cost of products sold deleveraged by 70 basis points driven by unfavorable mix in the MedTech business and commodity inflation in the Consumer Health business.
Sales, marketing and administrative deleveraged by 110 basis points driven by higher brand marketing expenses in Consumer Health and timing of brand marketing expenses in the Pharmaceutical segment. We continue to invest strategically in research and development at competitive levels, investing 14.8% of sales this quarter. The $3.5 billion investment was an 8.9% increase versus the prior year primarily due to portfolio progression in Pharmaceutical and MedTech. In-process research and development reflects an impairment expense of $610 million for certain indications associated with bermekimab, the investigational compound acquired from XBiotech, Inc., as disclosed in our previous SEC filings.
This impairment was driven by the termination of development of bermekimab for atopic dermatitis based on efficacy data. The other income and expense line was net income of $102 million in the first quarter of 2022 compared to net income of $882 million in the first quarter of 2021. This decrease was the result of lapping prior-year gains on the divestiture of DOXIL, CAELYX and EVRA in 2021, higher unrealized losses on securities and Consumer Health separation costs. This was partially offset by favorable returns associated with our employee benefit plans. Regarding taxes in the quarter, our effective tax rate was 12.2% versus 16.6% in the same period last year.
The decreased tax rate was primarily driven by lower U.S. income due to higher unrealized losses on securities and the impairment of bermekimab IP R&D compared to prior year divestiture gains. Excluding special items, the effective tax rate was 13.3% versus 16.5% in the same period last year. I encourage you to review our upcoming first quarter 10-Q filing for additional details on specific tax matters. Lastly, I'll direct your attention to the boxed section of the slide where we have also provided our income before tax, net earnings and earnings per share adjusted to exclude the impact of intangible amortization expense and special items.
Now, let's look at adjusted income before tax by segment. In the first quarter of 2022, our adjusted income before tax for the enterprise as a percentage of sales decreased from 37.1% to 35.1% due to product mix, commodity inflation, increased brand marketing expense, portfolio progression in R&D and comparisons to gains from prior-year divestitures. Pharmaceutical margin declined from 45.5% to 44.1%, primarily driven by timing of brand marketing expenses and general portfolio progression in R&D. MedTech margins declined from 30.6% to 27% driven by unfavorable product mix. Finally, Consumer Health margins declined from 26.8% to 22.1% due to commodity inflation and higher brand marketing expenses.
This concludes the sales and earnings portion of the Johnson & Johnson fourth quarter results. I am now pleased to turn the call back over to Joe Wolk.
