Acquisitions drive Philips Medical Systems' sales growth
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Including special charges, Abbott Laboratories' net earnings were $771m. The items include acquired in-process R&D relating to Biocompatibles' stent business, the alliance with Medtronic concerning stents, and issues relating to the consent decree with the FDA, dating from October 2000, concerning Abbott's Lake County diagnostics manufacturing site (see Clinica No 1011, p 14). In May, the FDA told the company that its facilities were still not in compliance with FDA-imposed quality systems regulations (see Clinica No 1008, p 15). Analysts at Morgan Stanley do not see a resolution of the situation before 2004. Abbott had worldwide diagnostic sales of $735m in the quarter, up 2%. US diagnostic sales were down by 1% to $295m. For the full year, the analysts see total diagnostics sales growth of only 1%, cue to the continuation of the consent decree. In the six months, the company's MediSense glucose monitoring products had sales of $101m, up 12%.