Abbott Profit Jumps, Drugs, Devices Shine

Abbott Laboratories said on Wednesday fourth-quarter earnings jumped 28 percent on demand for its prescription drugs, nutritional products and medical devices, including its new Xience stent used to prop open coronary arteries.

The strong performance, based on double-digit sales growth for its major business units, stood in marked contrast to Johnson & Johnson -- its diversified healthcare rival, which on Tuesday attributed anemic quarterly results partly to the economic downturn.

Abbott said it earned $1.54 billion, or 98 cents per share, compared with $1.2 billion, or 77 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding special items, Abbott earned $1.06 per share, matching the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

Shares of Abbott rose 3.4 percent to $50.90 in light pre-market trading.

Global quarterly sales rose 10.1 percent to $7.95 billion, a bit below the Reuters estimate of $8 billion, and would have climbed 12.6 percent if not for unfavorable foreign exchange factors.

Abbott reaffirmed it expects full-year 2009 earnings of $3.65 to $3.70 per share, noting that the midpoint of the range would represent double-digit growth over last year.

Global sales of prescription drugs rose almost 10 percent to $4.61 billion due to continued surging growth of arthritis drug Humira and TriCor, used to lower blood fats called triglycerides.

Humira sales jumped almost 42 percent to $1.35 billion in the quarter, while TriCor revenue rose 16 percent to $455 million.

But Depakote, a treatment for bipolar disorder now facing generic competition, fell 42 percent to $268 million, while Synthroid, an artificial thyroid hormone, slipped 7 percent to $142 million due to increased competition.

Sales of medical products rose 15.6 percent to $1.9 billion, fueled by more than doubled sales of heart stents, while sales of nutritional products rose 11 percent to $1.32 billion.

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