In a sign that it is still struggling as competition emerges for it major drugs Procrit and Risperdal and that its stent business is still troubled by safety concerns, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced that it would buy back as much as $10 billion of its shares.

JNJ has a market cap of $186 billion. The announcement did not move the shares much. They inched up 1.5% to $63, and are down about 6% this year.

With 2006 revenue of $53 billion, its is a bit surprising that JNJ is not using the capital to buy another company. It is hard not to imagine that it pharma business could not benefit from the R&D at one or more of its smaller biotech partners.

But, it’s only $10 billion.

Douglas A. McIntyre