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This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Ongoing difficulties in Abbott Laboratories' US diagnostics business were reflected by a 1.8% drop in total diagnostics sales, to $3bn, when currency effects were excluded. Factoring in the positive impact of the foreign exchange, the figure was up by 5%. There could well be an improvement in 2004 as the FDA has now agreed to let it recommence production at a key site in Illinois (see Clinica No 1089, p 1). The MediSense diabetes business was fairly flat, excluding currency effects ($541m). The group reported a 7.8% underlying rise in 2003 group sales (subtracting a 3.5 percentage point positive currency effect). As well as pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, the overall figure included hospital products ($4bn; including a 45% rise in vascular device sales to $185m) and Ross Products/nutritionals ($3.5bn). One-time charges in 2003 included $98m for in-process R&D relating to acquisitions, a $536m penalty for the Medicare fraud committed by its Ross Products division, and $67m in impaired assets. The company is spinning off most of its hospital products, and expects the associated one-time charges to reduce 2004 earnings per share by $0.20 to $2.20-2.28. Separately, Abbott has announced a multi-year deal with America's Blood Centers, which accounts for nearly half of the US donated blood supply. It will provide instruments and five infectious diseases tests for use in screening.