Reuters: Global Markets: Abbott beats Street, lifts 2012 forecast

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Abbott beats Street, lifts 2012 forecast Apr 18th 2012, 12:45 Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:45am EDT (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc (ABT.N) reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and earnings, fueled by strong demand for its Humira arthritis drug and its wide array of prescription medicines, nutritional products and medical devices. The company earned $1.24 billion, or 78 cents per share, in the first quarter, up from $864 million, or 55 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding special items, Abbott earned $1.03 per share. Analysts, on average, had forecast $1.00. Revenue rose 4.6 percent to $9.46 billion, topping Wall Street expectations of $9.36 billion. Global sales of Humira, by far the company's biggest product, surged 17 percent to $1.93 billion, putting it on track to leapfrog cholesterol fighter Lipitor and become the world's top-selling medicine. Sales of nutritional products rose 10 percent to $1.6 billion, helped by new product launches and growing demand in emerging markets. The company's diagnostics products also reported solid growth. Sales of vascular products, comprised largely of heart stents, fell 5 percent to $803 million on declining revenue from Boston Scientific Corp's (BSX.N) Promus stent. Promus is a private-label version of Abbott's widely used Xience stent; Abbott has shared in profits from Promus under a longstanding agreement to manufacture the product for Boston Scientific. Abbott in October announced plans to spin off its branded prescription drug business into a separate publicly traded company amid criticism that it has become too dependent on Humira. The injected drug is facing growing competitive threats, including possible cheaper generic versions and a pill being developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), and concerns about its vulnerability have held back Abbott shares. Abbott on Wednesday raised its full-year profit forecast to between $5.00 and $5.10 per share, from its earlier view of $4.95 to $5.05. The new forecast would mean growth of up to 9.4 percent from 2011. Abbott shares were up 1.7 percent in premarket trading. (Reporting By Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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