Dive Brief:

• Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday said its medical device unit posted a 3.7% increase in second-quarter sales, compared with a year ago, helping to lift results overall.
• Worldwide medical device sales reached $7 billion, exceeding Wall Street estimates of $6.9 billion. Excluding acquisitions and divestitures, worldwide device sales rose 2.9%.
• CEO Alex Gorsky told investors on a conference call the company is "very interested in value creating inorganic growth opportunities in medical devices."  

Dive Insight:

Driving the improved trend in the medical device division were vision and interventional products, including Acuvue contact lenses, biosurgical devices and vision surgery, and electrophysiology, wound closure and trauma products. Positive results in those businesses offset declines in diabetes care and spine products, J&J said.

J&J has been restructuring its underperforming medical device unit in recent years. During the quarter, the company accepted a binding offer from Platinum Equity to acquire its LifeScan business for about $2.1 billion. It also announced plans to sell its Advanced Sterilization Products business to Fortive for about $2.8 billion.

In July, the company acquired the assets of Medical Enterprises Distribution, a developer of technology used in hip replacement surgery.

Gorsky said the company remains invested in growing its medical device presence, noting it has 15 to 20 launches in place this year.

He described the last several years highlighted by an uptick in the number of bolt-on acquisitions.

"In fact, just last year we invested more than a billion dollars in our medical device group, giving us good new technologies really across almost all of our major platforms," Gorsky said.

Total sales in the quarter reached $20.8 billion, up 10.6 percent from a year ago. Sales increased 8.7% on an operational basis. Pharmaceutical sales climbed 20 percent to $10.4 billion. Consumer products sales rose 0.7% to $3.5 billion.

The company reported net income of $4 billion, or $1.45 per share. After special items, the company earned $5.7 billion, or $2.10 per share, topping the average analyst estimate of  $2.07 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

A Missouri jury last week ordered J&J to pay $4.7 billion to 22 women in a lawsuit alleging the company’s talcum powder products caused ovarian cancer.

Jacob Bell contributed reporting.