Johnson & Johnson persuaded Delaware’s highest court to overturn $400 million of a previously awarded $1 billion in damages related to its 2019 agreement to acquire Auris Health, a California-based developer of soft-tissue surgical robots. The suit, filed by Auris shareholders in 2021, alleged J&J breached its merger representations by delaying milestone payments tied to regulatory clearances and sales thresholds. The Court found insufficient evidence that J&J acted in bad faith and ruled that only direct losses linked to concrete milestones could be recovered. The ruling reduces J&J’s potential liability by 40% and underscores the judicial scrutiny on deal-related earn-out disputes in high-value MedTech transactions.

At the 44th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, CEO Joaquin Duato highlighted J&J’s outperformance in 2025, projecting accelerated revenue growth throughout 2026 and double-digit annual increases in the latter half of the decade. Duato reiterated the company’s target to surpass $100 billion in annual sales, driven by oncology, immunology and innovative medical devices. He emphasized operational excellence initiatives, including cost efficiencies expected to deliver $1.5 billion in run-rate savings by 2027, and outlined plans to expand manufacturing capacity for next-generation cell and gene therapies in North America and Europe. Duato also flagged the final quarter launch of two pipeline assets that could each generate over $500 million in peak sales.

Through its venture capital arm JJDC, Inc., Johnson & Johnson invested an undisclosed sum in Distalmotion following the Swiss MedTech’s $150 million Series G round closed in 2025. The funding will accelerate commercialization of the DEXTER® robotic surgery system in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), where over 2.5 million eligible outpatient soft-tissue procedures are performed annually in the U.S. DEXTER’s compact design already supports more than 3,000 treated patients across Europe and North America. JJDC’s backing provides strategic alignment with J&J’s initiative to capture a larger share of the fast-growing ASC robotics market, which has seen a 20% year-over-year uptick in site adoption since 2023.