Earnings In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Abbott's vascular, molecular diagnostics sales drive device biz: Firm's worldwide vascular sales advanced 4.7% to $666 million in the third quarter, driven by continued uptake of Xience V everolimus-eluting stents, the firm says. Abbott estimates its U.S. DES market share percentage was in the high 20s for the quarter, and the firm plans to "leverage compelling data on Xience to continue to drive DES share gains," Abbott VP-Investor Relations John Thomas said during an Oct. 14 earnings call. Abbott presented 12-month results from its SPIRIT IV trial at the recent Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference showing Xience outperformed Boston Scientific's Taxus Express2 paclitaxel-eluting stent (1"The Gray Sheet" Sept. 29, 2009). Other highlights of the quarter included a 15.4% increase in global molecular diagnostics sales to $82 million and the contribution of $263 million in medical optics sales as a result of the firm's entry into the ophthalmology market earlier this year through the $2.8 billion acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics (2"The Gray Sheet" Jan. 19, 2009). Overall, Abbott medical product sales advanced 16.2% for the quarter on an operational basis, excluding an unfavorable 5.1% effect of foreign exchange rates. Corporate sales advanced 3.5% on a reported basis to $7.76 billion