Launches and label extensions are anticipated to drive profits.

In a conference call mid-September 2018, Johnson & Johnson executives said they anticipate strong growth for the company going forward despite pricing pressures and increasing generics and biosimilars competition.

The company leaders indicated that J&J’s history of annual sales growth would continue as the result of new product launches and add-ons to existing product lines. The company has drawn up a roadmap for launching 11 new drugs that will replace reduced earnings from immunology med Remicade as it faces competition from biosimilars marketed by Pfizer and Merck. Remicade still holds the greatest share of the market due to J&J's contracting, which Pfizer calls "anticompetitive" and has filed a lawsuit. 

Continued erosion for Remicade, as well as other generic and biosimilar competition for products such as Concerta, Velcade, Tracleer and Procritm is expected, according to J&J’s Executive Vice President and Worldwide Chairman for Pharmaceuticals Jennifer Taubert.

Two of the new drugs the company expects to launch are esketamine, for which J&J recently filed an NDA with the FDA for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression, and erdafitinib for metastatic urothelial cancer. The company also intends to file applications for 50 new uses for its already marketed drug products by 2021 According to the company, over 10 of these extensions have a sales potential of greater than $500 million.