The Companies Copying StelaraThin moat
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) — moat facet
The rivals that took $4.3 billion of Stelara sales from J&J in 2025 spent almost nothing discovering the drug.
The most effective competitors J&J faced in 2025 did not discover anything. Biosimilar makers, which the filing does not name, took Stelara from $10,361 million in 2024 to $6,078 million in 20251. Third parties have filed biologics license applications with the FDA, the European Medicines Agency and other authorities to market biosimilar versions of Stelara around the globe2.
The relationship is unlike any other rivalry. A biosimilar maker waits for J&J to prove a molecule, build the market and train physicians to prescribe it, then sells a copy once the patents allow. Its costs of discovery and market creation are close to nothing.
The damage is steepest in the United States. In the second quarter of 2026 Stelara fell 68.8% in the United States and 29.7% internationally; Remicade fell 24.1% in the United States; Simponi fell 14.6% in the United States3. The filing says at least two biosimilars are pursuing regulatory approval for a Simponi biosimilar in the United States4.
J&J's defence is not to fight the copies on price but to move patients to a successor before the copies arrive. Tremfya grew 84.2% in the United States in the same quarter5. That works when a successor exists.
The copies do not only take sales; they change the price of the class. A biosimilar entering at a discount pulls down the prices payers accept for every drug in the same category, including the successor J&J wants patients to move to. Tremfya's growth shows it has not yet been badly affected, but the rebates J&J pays across Innovative Medicine rose to $56,819 million in 20256, and some of that rise is the cost of keeping branded products on formularies as cheaper copies appear.
Biosimilar competition is the most predictable threat J&J faces, because it arrives on a schedule set by patents. Its gauge is the United States decline rate of the next product to lose exclusivity; Simponi's 14.6% fall in the second quarter, before any United States biosimilar is approved, is the starting point.
Stelara, Remicade and Simponi all fell in the United States in the latest quarter.
What biosimilars do in the United States; the next exposed products are Simponi and Opsumit.
Source: Johnson & Johnson Q2 2026 financial schedules ↗- ReportedBiosimilar makers, which the filing does not name, took Stelara from $10,361 million in 2024 to $6,078 million in 2025.Johnson & Johnson Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (year ended 28 December 2025) - Item 7 MD&A: Innovative Medicine segment, therapeutic-area and product sales analysis. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedThird parties have filed biologics license applications with the FDA, the European Medicines Agency and other authorities to market biosimilar versions of Stelara around the globe.Johnson & Johnson Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (year ended 28 December 2025) - Item 1 business: segments, competition, patents, the three largest products, royalties, collaboration partners and the regulatory table. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedIn the second quarter of 2026 Stelara fell 68.8% in the United States and 29.7% internationally; Remicade fell 24.1% in the United States; Simponi fell 14.6% in the United States.Johnson & Johnson second-quarter 2026 supplementary sales data, statement of earnings and non-GAAP reconciliation, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Innovative Medicine and total sales by product, segment and region. — Q2 2026 · publ. 15 July 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedThe filing says at least two biosimilars are pursuing regulatory approval for a Simponi biosimilar in the United States.Johnson & Johnson Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (year ended 28 December 2025) - Item 7 MD&A: Innovative Medicine segment, therapeutic-area and product sales analysis. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedTremfya grew 84.2% in the United States in the same quarter.Johnson & Johnson second-quarter 2026 supplementary sales data, statement of earnings and non-GAAP reconciliation, Form 8-K exhibit 99.2 - Innovative Medicine and total sales by product, segment and region. — Q2 2026 · publ. 15 July 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedTremfya's growth shows it has not yet been badly affected, but the rebates J&J pays across Innovative Medicine rose to $56,819 million in 2025, and some of that rise is the cost of keeping branded products on formularies as cheaper copies appear.Johnson & Johnson Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (year ended 28 December 2025) - Item 7 MD&A: rebate accrual tables, research and development, cost of products sold, debt and liquidity. — FY2025 · publ. 11 February 2026 · source ↗