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Joseph Wolk
Joseph Wolk JNJ
Executive VP & CFO, Johnson & Johnson
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Johnson & Johnson shares SLIDE nearly 6% despite stronger full-year forecast

📅 Oct 13, 2026 Fox Business 11 MIN 127 VIEWS 24 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Johnson & Johnson executive vice president and CFO Joe Wolk discusses the company's third-quarter earnings, raising its full-year guidance, a potential spinoff of its DePuy Synthes orthopedics unit, and more, on 'The Claman Countdown.' #fox #foxbusiness #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #theclamancountdown #claman #johnsonandjohnson #business #finance #financial #stocks #stockmarket #wallstreet #investing #investment #earnings #corporate #healthcare #health #medical #orthopedics #medicaldevices #depuy #spinoff #revenue #profits #guidance #economy #market #leadership #innovatio...

What Joseph Wolk said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Joseph Wolk, CFO of Johnson & Johnson, discussed the company's plan to spin off its orthopedics business into a standalone company by mid-2027, aiming to unlock shareholder value and allow J&J to focus on higher-growth areas like cardiovascular, vision, and surgery. He noted orthopedics generates over $7 billion in annual sales but grows at only 4% to 6% with lower margins. Wolk addressed MedTech softness outside the U.S., attributing it to temporary geopolitical factors and defense spending shifts. He highlighted strong oncology growth, targeting $50 billion in sales and potential number one position, with eight out of ten myeloma patients on J&J therapy. He also discussed the success of Shockwave and a psoriasis drug, with 70% of its business from inflammatory bowel disease. On pricing, he argued that prescription drugs are only 9% of healthcare costs and defended R&D spending. He stated the talc litigation is behind them, pending 95% claimant approval.

Key takeaways

  1. J&J plans to spin off orthopedics into a standalone company by mid-2027.
  2. Oncology business is targeting $50 billion in sales, potentially becoming number one.
  3. Orthopedics generates over $7 billion in annual sales, growing 4% to 6%.
  4. Talc litigation is behind them, subject to 95% claimant approval.
  5. Prescription drugs account for only 9% of U.S. healthcare costs.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
mid-2027 Timeline for orthopedics spin-off timeline 0:07
$7 billion Annual orthopedics sales metric 0:07
4% to 6% Orthopedics growth rate metric 1:24
70% Oncology business growth metric 5:05
$25 billion Last year's oncology sales metric 5:21
$50 billion Target oncology sales guidance 5:21
8 out of 10 Myeloma patients on J&J therapy metric 5:21
30% Shockwave business growth in the quarter metric 5:57
10% Eligible patients receiving Shockwave treatment metric 5:57
70% Inflammatory bowel disease share of psoriasis drug sales metric 6:58

Chapters

  1. 0:00Orthopedics spin-off rationale
  2. 3:25MedTech performance and outlook
  3. 5:21Oncology growth and targets
  4. 5:57Shockwave market opportunity
  5. 6:58Psoriasis therapy expansion
  6. 8:41Drug pricing and R&D costs
  7. 10:08Talc litigation resolution

Questions asked in this interview

8
  1. 1:01Is this more of a let's unlock shareholder value by spinning off?
  2. 2:06But it's high volume, just lower margins. What are you thinking?
  3. 2:30Do you think this will get $20 billion for you?
  4. 3:00What's the overall, overarching picture that you see right now when it comes to people who've had surgeries that involve medical technology?
  5. 4:22Is that the state of our world?
  6. 5:05What should shareholders who right now see the stock down 5% infer? Is this a buying opportunity?
  7. 7:59Where is the tipping point, Joe, between a lower price and where they change the amount of money that you spend to develop new drugs because you're not making enough?
  8. 9:31Is it behind you and the plaintiffs, and I guess the shareholders as well?
Host 0:07 ↗
Johnson & Johnson said that it is targeting $100 billion in annual sales, and the stock is trading up 5.6% right now. Wall Street zeroing in on weakness, but when the healthcare giant may be ready to leave behind... J&J said that it is leaning toward spinning off its orthopedics business into a standalone company by mid-2027. And the orthopedics business alone served 7 million patients here and ran $2.3 billion in sales just this past quarter. And for the year, listen to this, it generated more than $7 billion in sales, up 4.9%, and earnings up 5.3%. And so finally, Joe, just as everyone we know of a certain age, Joe...
is getting a replacement of some sort. Johnson & Johnson Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Joe, is here. It's true, I cannot even see my friends. How are you doing? Well, I got my hip replaced. My knee replaced. Like, oh my gosh, we battled. But this is a very vibrant business now. It's done incredibly well for you guys. Is this more of a let's unlock shareholder value by spinning off?
Joseph Wolk 1:24 ↗
Well, I think that is perfectly stated. Thank you for having me on today. We're interested in Johnson & Johnson, we appreciate your time. If you look at where we want to play, it's cardiovascular and vision and surgery. Those are supposed to be higher growth markets. And now, orthopedics is a great business that will perform somewhere between 4% and 6% with a little bit lower margins. It's capital-intensive. So as we already said in the past year, when we announced our intention to separate the business, the focus is to make it better under the bigger umbrella of Johnson & Johnson for that business to do better for the long term, but also to create shareholder value for the long term by spinning it out.
Host 2:06 ↗
High volume, using numbers you know every year, Americans... latest shows that 800,000 knee replacements and 500,000 hip replacements. But it's high volume, just lower margins. What are you thinking?
Joseph Wolk 2:20 ↗
Well, that is correct, but a great job by the team leading and just generating a lot of momentum. I think it bodes well for 2027 and beyond.
Host 2:30 ↗
Okay. Do you think this will get $20 billion for you?
Joseph Wolk 2:33 ↗
Well, we're probably going to stay independent. You know, and we have looked at all alternatives, and they have gotten better because of the performance of the business. But if you think about medtech valuations, the momentum, the depressed credit, private equity firms who have been professional buyers are looking to get a deal. But the benefit of being Johnson & Johnson's strength is that we are not cash-strapped. It's not optimal for the shareholders.
Host 3:00 ↗
What would happen with MedTech? Because you beat Wall Street expectations. Raised... with MedTech business grew 2.5%, bringing in $6.6 billion, slightly short of the $6.7 billion Wall Street was looking for. What's the overall, overarching picture that you see right now when it comes to people who've had surgeries that involve medical technology?
Joseph Wolk 3:25 ↗
It was really a two-sided story. And if you look at the U.S. surgical procedures and how well the demand is there, as we grew about 5% in the U.S. Outside the U.S., well, maybe you have some macroeconomic, geopolitical factors. And so we did see some softness in the conflict. And it's not that the demand is not there. It is the fact that countries in the region are now prioritizing some of the budgets towards defense versus healthcare. We think that is a temporary thing. And other countries take a lot of pride in having good healthcare for their citizens. I think that comes back in time. So we think that for 2027, both will be stronger than what's already occurred in 2026, which by all measures is a success, and the growth will accelerate.
Host 4:11 ↗
The stock is trading just a moment ago, up over $1 for the first time in 140... history. Pretty good for a company a few years down the road, growing at 10% plus for a few years.
Wait, hold on. You are saying that as a pharmaceutical and medical technology company, you can actually tell when countries are spending more on defense right now versus what they had been spending on healthcare? Is that the state of our world? I just find that really interesting. Not a good way, but still.
Joseph Wolk 4:45 ↗
We think it's a temporary phenomenon with the events, but we know that there are some countries outside of the U.S. that do business with us. And when that request for product comes in, when they've contractually obliged themselves to that, we see that little bit of a slowdown. Thank you. So more a timing effect than anything systemic.

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APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Wolk, J. (2026, October 13). Johnson & Johnson shares SLIDE nearly 6% despite stronger full-year forecast [Interview transcript]. Fox Business. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3055631/

MLA

Joseph Wolk. "Johnson & Johnson shares SLIDE nearly 6% despite stronger full-year forecast." Fox Business, 13 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3055631/.

BibTeX 
@misc{wolk2026_3055631,
  author       = {Joseph Wolk},
  title        = {Johnson \& Johnson shares SLIDE nearly 6\% despite stronger full-year forecast},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Fox Business. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {oct},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3055631/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}