TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) - Health care products maker Johnson & Johnson's profit rose almost 10 percent in the fourth quarter as revenues jumped by double digits despite sales drops for two key product lines.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based maker of prescription drugs, medical devices, contact lenses and baby care items yesterday reported net income of $2.37 billion, or 82 cents per share, up from $2.17 billion, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, net income would have been 88 cents per share.

Revenues totaled $15.96 billion, up 16.6 percent from $13.7 billion in the year-ago quarter. Most growth came overseas, with international sales jumping 26 percent and currency exchange rates boosting revenues nearly five percent.

"This is as good as it gets for them, and it is not a harbinger for good times in the future," said analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 86 cents per share excluding one-time items on revenues of $15.4 billion.

"In 2007, we delivered strong results across our broad base of businesses and exceeded expectations," CEO Bill Weldon told analysts at a meeting. "We achieved those results despite having to work through one of the more difficult years in Johnson & Johnson's history."

Last July, the company announced its biggest restructuring ever, saying it would cut up to four percent of jobs due to looming patent expirations for key drugs and continuing sales declines for two top products. Anemia treatment Procrit - J&J's No. 1 drug until 2005 - saw sales fall 20 percent to $628 million in the fourth quarter. In the same quarter, sales fell nearly one-third to $415 million for Cypher, a metal-mesh tube, or stent, that slowly releases medicine to keep a heart artery open after a blockage is cleared.

Mr. Brozak said he expects Procrit sales to continue to fall and does not see "the stent business getting better."

In the fourth quarter, sales for J&J's medical devices and diagnostics business rose 11 percent, to $5.8 billion, while prescription drug sales rose 7.5 percent to $6.4 billion. Sales of consumer health products such skin and dental products and non-prescription medicines hit $3.8 billion, up 48 percent, mainly due to the December 2006 acquisition of Pfizer Inc.'s consumer health business.

J&J said it expects earnings per share for 2008 to total $4.39 to $4.44, excluding one-time items. Analysts have been looking for earnings of $4.42 a share for 2008.