J&J raises 2017 profit forecast

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its full-year profit forecast and reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by strong demand for its newer products.

The diversified healthcare company, which completed its $30 billion acquisition of Swiss biotech Actelion last month, raised its 2017 profit forecast range to $7.12 to $7.22 per share, from $7.00 to $7.15.

J&J also raised the low end of its full-year revenue forecast range to $75.8 billion from $75.4 billion. It, however, kept the top end of the range unchanged at $76.1 billion.

Shares of the healthcare conglomerate were up 2 percent before the bell on Tuesday.

Excluding special items, the Band-Aid maker earned $1.83 per share in the second quarter, beating analysts' estimates of $1.80 per share, helped partly by strong demand for its cancer drugs, Darzalex and Imbruvica.

However, sales of J&J's top-selling drug, Remicade, fell 14 percent to $1.53 billion.

The company's net earnings fell to $3.83 billion, or $1.40 per share, from about $4 billion, or $1.43 per share.

The company generated sales of $18.84 billion in the quarter, missing the average analyst estimate of $18.95 billion.

J&J is the first among major pharmaceutical companies to report its quarterly results, and the report comes a day after a second Republican effort to pass healthcare legislation in the Senate collapsed.

(Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)