The influence of interlayer tunneling in layered superconducting (SC)
medium on the intralayer SC is shown to be essential in strongly aniso
tropic cuprates. Josephson-like transverse current is found to be a un
iversal function of the phase difference OMEGA between adjacent layers
, while a simple Josephson sinusoidal dependence on OMEGA is valid onl
y at rather low temperature T much less than T(ex), the 3D-2D crossove
r temperature.