Dear fellow shareholders,
On behalf of our entire Board and all our employees, I want to thank you for your investment in Johnson & Johnson. We are pleased to have delivered another year of strong sales and earnings growth in 2021, as well as a record $14.7 billion in R&D investment, while advancing our work to improve healthcare outcomes around the world.
The key to our success has always been, and remains, our people. I admire our colleagues’ eagerness to tackle some of healthcare’s toughest challenges and to continue advancing the Company’s innovation agenda for the benefit of patients and consumers. Thanks to their relentless dedication, particularly in the face of continued challenges presented by COVID-19, we delivered for all our Credo stakeholders in 2021. I am incredibly proud of our work leveraging our scientific expertise, operational scale, and financial strength to advance the work of our COVID-19 vaccine and respond to the pandemic more broadly. By keeping global equity at the forefront, prioritizing our patients and customers, protecting our employees and delivering critical support for communities and health workers on the frontlines, we have both lived into Our Credo values and delivered value to our shareholders. The performance of our world-class team during these turbulent times reinforces the optimism I feel about the future of Johnson & Johnson.
As I consider the last two years, it is clear how COVID-19 has changed global perceptions and attitudes towards healthcare. It revealed significant opportunity for change and improvement, while at the same time creating a renewed optimism around the power of science to change the trajectory of human health. People are focused on personal and societal health in new and urgent ways and demanding that companies deliver on their promises and act with purpose. I believe Johnson & Johnson is uniquely positioned to lead the way in answering those calls as the global healthcare landscape evolves.
We enter fiscal 2022 ready to thrive in this highly dynamic business environment. Our strong foundation allows us to continue prioritizing meaningful innovation and making the right choices for the long-term value of our business on behalf of our core stakeholders—the patients and consumers, healthcare workers and employees, partners and shareholders who depend on us. We also remain committed to—and hold ourselves accountable for— changing the trajectory of health for humanity through efforts based on our environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities. These practices drive value creation by building stakeholder trust, driving innovation, mitigating risk, increasing productivity, and fostering employee engagement.
As a member of the Executive Committee since 2016, I have had the privilege of working closely with the diverse, experienced and independent members of our Board of Directors as well as our incredibly strong and committed executive leadership team. Guided and supported by these relationships, our strategic focus for the year ahead is centered on three priorities:
- Advancing our global leadership in Pharmaceuticals. We are building upon our strong Pharmaceutical portfolio and promising pipeline to position us to continue delivering abovemarket growth rates and to manage through potential patent expiries as we have done in the past. We are laser-focused on our long-term goal of growing to a $60 billion segment by 2025.
- Driving our MedTech business to become a best-in-class performer. In 2021, we enhanced the competitiveness of our MedTech business, with eleven platforms that are worth over $1 billion. Almost all our priority platforms are holding or gaining share. Looking ahead, we are committed to continuing to improve execution, while also increasing the cadence of innovation with a focus on organic and inorganic expansion into higher growth markets and market segments. Together, the capabilities and synergies of our MedTech and Pharmaceutical businesses will constitute a new Johnson & Johnson that is uniquely positioned to accelerate growth, bring differentiated therapies that span both segments, and offer new levels of integrated, comprehensive care to patients worldwide.
- Ensuring the successful creation of the New Consumer Health Company as a standalone industry leader. In keeping with our commitment to take bold actions to evolve our business for the future, we announced the planned separation of our businesses into two leading, publicly traded companies in November 2021. Our Consumer Health business grew competitively last year and has made significant progress in improving its margin profile over the last few years. We continue to believe that operating as two standalone companies will advance more targeted business strategies, accelerate growth, and deliver improved outcomes for both patients and consumers, which ultimately will deliver greater value to shareholders.
I want to end by thanking you for your continued trust and confidence in our Company. I am deeply honored to be the eighth CEO of Johnson & Johnson and to serve as a member of the Company’s Board. I look forward to leading our more than 140,000 employees and working with my fellow Directors to advance Our Credo and Our Purpose to address the world's toughest health challenges, while driving value for our shareholders.
Sincerely,
Joaquin Duato
Chief Executive Officer