Second quarter earnings fell by half to $1.41 billion at pharmaceuticals giant Johnson & Johnson after it took more than $2.0 billion in special charges and writeoffs, the company said Tuesday.
J&J said global sales for the three months to June 30 were down 0.7 percent from a year earlier to $16.46 billion, while costs fell more sharply, contributing to a 3.5 percent gain in operating profits.
But after set-asides and write-offs, the company's net earnings came in at $1.41 billion, down 49.3 percent from a year earlier, and earnings per share were 50 cents, half of the $1.00 eps of a year earlier.
The company said it took charges of more than $2 billion on several extraordinary items: writedowns related to its Crucell vaccines business, settlement set-asides for litigation, costs for recalls of hip replacement products and currency costs related to the acquisition of Synthes.
Excluding those, the company said, net earnings would have been $3.6 billion.