Johnson and Johnson sees improved first quarter sales

Johnson and Johnson has published its financial report for the first quarter of the new fiscal year, during which it experienced a year-on-year increase in sales.

The multinational healthcare firm's sales total for the period rose by 3.5 percent year over year to reach $16.2 billion (9.78 billion pounds), with $6.6 billion of this total coming from its medical devices and diagnostics unit.

Among the contributors to growth in this division were its LifeScan blood glucose monitoring range, Biosense Webster's electrophysiology products and DePuy's sports medicine and neurovascular business, as well as Ethicon's surgical care offering.

William Weldon, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson and Johnson, also highlighted its pharmaceutical unit's growth and its various pipeline investments as positive first-quarter trends.

"The innovations we are bringing to the market [and] the changes we are implementing in manufacturing and quality … give us great confidence in the future growth prospects of our business," he said.

This builds on the strong performance of Johnson and Johnson's medical device division in 2010, during which its sales grew by 4.4 percent.