By Michael Erman

A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, U.S. REUTERS

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson(JNJ.N) raised its full-year sales forecast on Wednesday after beating estimates for second-quarter profit on strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business.

The company also reduced its expectations for tariff-related costs to $200 million from $400 million for the year, citing the Trump administration's pause on levies on China and other retaliatory tariff measures.

"We were able to absorb that and still raise our EPS guidance by 25 cents on the year," CFO Joseph Wolk said.

On an adjusted basis, the drug and medical device maker earned $2.77 per share for the quarter, above analysts' expectations of $2.68 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Sales in the quarter were $23.74 billion, above analysts' expectations of $22.84 billion.

Excluding the impact of foreign currency, quarterly sales for the medtech unit rose 6.1% to $8.54 billion. Analysts were expecting sales of $8.25 billion.

The company said it now expects full-year sales, including the impact of foreign currency, in the range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its April forecast of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $91.5 billion for the year.

It cited strong operational performance in the quarter as well as the stronger dollar for the increase.

J&J said in April that it was expecting $400 million in costs related to tariffs, mostly in the company's medical device business, starting from the second quarter.

Wolk said the company was not ready to forecast the impact of tariffs on 2026. "It's such a fluid environment that we'll just have to wait and see," he said.

On an adjusted basis, J&J expects to earn $10.80 to $10.90 per share in 2025, compared with its previous forecast of $10.50 to $10.70 per share.

Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in second-quarter sales of $3.54 billion, compared with analysts' expectations of $3.38 billion.

Shares of the company rose 1.1% to $156.90 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Anil D'Silva)

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