Abbott Laboratories

Type: Public Company
Address: 100 Abbott Park Road, Abbott Park, Illinois, 60064-6400, U.S.A.
Telephone: (847) 937-6100
Fax: (847) 937-9555
Web: http://www.abbott.com
Employees: 65,000
Sales: $22.48 billion (2006)
Stock Exchanges: New York Chicago London Swiss Boston Philadelphia
Ticker Symbol: ABT
Incorporated: 1900 as Abbott Alkaloidal Company
NAIC: 325412 Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing; 325411 Medical and Botanical Manufacturing; 325413 In-Vitro Diagnostic Substance Manufacturing; 339113 Surgical Appliance and Supplies Manufacturing; 311514 Dry, Condensed, and Evaporated Dairy Product Manufacturing; 541710 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
SIC: 2834 Pharmaceutical Preparations; 2833 Medicinals & Botanicals; 2835 Diagnostic Substances; 3842 Surgical Appliances & Supplies; 2023 Dry, Condensed & Evaporated Dairy Products; 8731 Commercial Physical Research; 8733 Noncommercial Research Organizations

Abbott Laboratories is one of the oldest and most successful pharmaceutical and medical product companies in the United States. The company's pharmaceuticals business, which generates around 55 percent of overall annual revenues, is led by its blockbuster rheumatoid-arthritis drug Humira. Other key Abbott drugs include AIDS treatments Kaletra and Norvir; Depakote, prescribed for epilepsy and bipolar disorder; TriCor, a cholesterol-management drug; the antibiotic Biaxin; and Synthroid, used in the treatment of hypothyroidism. Abbott's nutritional products business, responsible for 19 percent of revenues, produces such well-known brands as Similac infant formula and Ensure adult nutritional supplements. Another 18 percent of sales stem from Abbott's diagnostic products business, specializing in blood analyzers and equipment to detect and monitor infections and diseases. The company's vascular products business, generator of 5 percent of revenues, concentrates on devices used in the treatment of vascular disease, most notably drug-coated heart stents. Abbott's annual research and development budget exceeds $2.2 billion, with areas of emphasis including AIDS/antivirals, anti-infectives, diabetes, immunology, neuroscience, oncology, pain care, and vascular medicine.

Early Decades

Abbott Laboratories has its origin in the late 19th century in a small pharmaceutical operation run from the kitchen of a Chicago physician named Wallace Calvin Abbott. As did other physicians of the time, Dr. Abbott commonly prescribed morphine, quinine, strychnine, and codeine (all of which were liquid alkaloid extracts) for his patients. Because they existed only in a liquid form, these drugs were prone to spoilage over time, mitigating their effectiveness as treatments. In 1888 Dr. Abbott heard that a Belgian surgeon had developed alkaloids in solid form. Alkaloid pills soon became available in Chicago, but Dr. Abbott was dissatisfied with their quality, and he decided to manufacture his own.

Dr. Abbott began to advertise his products to other doctors in 1891. So successful was his business that he eventually sold shares to other doctors and incorporated his operation in 1900 as the Abbott Alkaloidal Company. By 1905, annual sales had grown to $200,000. Ten years later, the company changed its name to Abbott Laboratories. During World War I, Abbott's company was essential to the medical community, as several important drugs, manufactured exclusively by German companies, were no longer available in the United States. Abbott developed procaine, a substitute for the German novocaine, and barbital, a replacement for veronal.

After the war, Abbott continued to concentrate on the research and development of new drugs. In 1921 the company established a laboratory in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, which developed a number of new drugs, including sedatives, tranquilizers, and vitamins. Even after Dr. Abbott's death that year, the company continued to invest heavily in new product development and aggressive marketing campaigns. The company went public in 1929 with a listing on the Chicago Stock Exchange. Two years later, Abbott expanded outside the United States for the first time with the establishment of an affiliate in Montreal, Canada.

DeWitt Clough was named president of the company in 1933, ending a period of somewhat stale communal leadership. A more dynamic character than any since Dr. Abbott, Clough is best remembered for the inauguration of the company magazine, What's New? The publication had such a positive impact on worker morale and public opinion that several of Abbott's competitors started similar publications. In 1936 Abbott began its long-term association with anesthetics when it introduced sodium pentothal, which had been developed by Abbott scientists Ernest Volwiler and Donalee Tabern (who in 1986 were named to the U.S. Inventors Hall of Fame for this discovery).

During World War II, Abbott once again played an important role in battlefield and hospital healthcare. By this time, American pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott were much less dependent on Germany's companies, particularly the IG Farben, a conglomeration of the world's most advanced drug manufacturers. After the war, much of the IG Farben's research was turned over to American manufacturers. Abbott, however, had little to gain from this information; it was already a worthy competitor on its own.

Antibiotics, Cyclamate, Similac

After the departure of DeWitt Clough in 1945, Abbott shifted its attention to the development of antibiotics. The company developed the antibiotic erythromycin, which, introduced under the brand names Erythrocin and E.E.S. in 1952, constituted a significant portion of Abbott's prescription drug sales for several decades, even after the expiration of its 17-year patent. Sales of the drug increased dramatically when it was found to be an effective treatment for Legionnaire's disease.

Abbott stumbled onto a lucrative new product when one of its researchers accidentally discovered that a chemical with which he had been working had a sweet taste. The chemical, a cyclamate, could be used as an artificial sweetener. Initially, from 1950, it was marketed to diabetics, but in the 1960s, as Americans became more health and diet conscious, it was increasingly used as a sugar substitute in a wide variety of foods.

In 1964 Abbott completed the first major acquisition in company history when it purchased Columbus, Ohio-based M&R Dietetic Laboratories. M&R was the manufacturer of Similac baby formula and over the succeeding decades, as the company's Ross Products Division, formed the basis for Abbott's market-leading infant and adult nutritionals business.

Diversification and Crises

By the mid-1960s, Abbott had gone several years without a major breakthrough in research, and none was projected at any time in the immediate future. Then, in 1967, Edward J. Ledder was named president of the company. He advocated a reduction in Abbott's emphasis on pharmaceuticals by diversifying into other fields. In the years that followed, Abbott introduced an array of consumer products, including Pream nondairy creamer, Glad Hands rubber gloves, Faultless golf balls, and Sucaryl, the cyclamate sugar substitute. In an effort to ensure the success of Abbott's consumer product line, Ledder placed Melvin Birnbaum, a highly experienced and able manager he had hired away from Revlon, in charge of the division. Ledder's policy of diversification laid the groundwork for more flexible corporate strategies. No longer exposed exclusively within the pharmaceuticals market, Abbott was able to cross-subsidize failing operations until they could be rehabilitated.

Despite this flexibility, Abbott soon realized new obstacles to its growth. The company's hospital products competed in a limited, institutional market. New drugs had greater profit margins but were subject to government approval procedures that kept companies waiting for several years before they could market their discoveries. Consumer products, on the other hand, involved more expensive marketing and generated less profit than pharmaceuticals. Unable to increase profits without substantial risk, Abbott's management decided to maintain the strategies that were in place.

Cyclamate sales had grown so dramatically that by 1969 they accounted for one-third of Abbott's consumer product revenues, or about $50 million. The increasing popularity of cyclamates as an ingredient in diet foods, however, led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct an investigation of possible side effects from their overuse. The FDA's research was widely criticized as "fragmentary" and "fatally flawed," but it was nonetheless used as evidence that cyclamates were carcinogenic. The market collapsed in August 1970 when the FDA banned domestic sales of cyclamates. Abbott, which overnight had suffered the loss of one of its most profitable operations, protested the ban, but was unable to reverse the decision. Although the company continued to petition the FDA, subsequent studies confirmed that metabolization of cyclamates can lead to chromosome breakage and bladder cancer.

Less than a year after cyclamates were banned, Abbott was forced to recall 3.4 million bottles of intravenous solution. The bottles were sealed with a varnished paper called Gilsonite, which, it was discovered, harbored bacteria. The contamination was discovered only when healthcare workers noticed and then investigated the high incidence of infection in patients who had been administered Abbott's intravenous solutions. The Centers for Disease Control linked the contaminated solutions to at least 434 infections and 49 deaths. With sales down from $17.9 million to $3 million, Abbott's share price began to fall. Abbott moved quickly to replace its Gilsonite seals with synthetic rubber, but the company was unable to regain its leadership of the intravenous market. Litigation resulted in the company eventually pleading no contest to a charge of conspiracy and paying a fine.

Refocusing on Pharmaceuticals, Nutritionals, and Diagnostic Equipment

The crises of the early 1970s left the company's upper echelon of management weakened and vulnerable to criticism. Although Edward Ledder was recognized for the success of his diversification program (and largely excused for his inability to prevent either the cyclamate ban or the intravenous solution crisis), conditions were obviously ripe for the expression of talent by a new manager. Robert Schoellhorn, a veteran of the chemical industry, was just such a manager. His efforts as a vice-president in the hospital products division at Abbott resulted in a revenue increase of 139 percent for that division between 1974 and 1979. He correctly predicted that the next most profitable trend in healthcare would be toward cost-effective analysis and treatment. Schoellhorn was later promoted to president and chief operating officer of the company. Meantime, in 1977 Abbott entered into a joint venture with Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd., of Japan called TAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. for the codevelopment and comarketing of pharmaceuticals.

Abbott Laboratories registered an annual sales growth rate of 15.5 percent and an earnings growth rate of 16.5 percent by 1979. This expansion was attributed by financial analysts to the company's increased productivity, reduced costs, expansion into foreign markets, and greater involvement in hospital nutritionals and diagnostic testing equipment. The company also introduced three new drugs in 1979: Depakene, an anticonvulsant; Tranxene, a mild tranquilizer; and Abbokinase, a treatment for blood clots in the lungs. All three products were the direct result of the company's increased investment in research and development in the mid-1970s.

Utilizing its knowledge of intravenous solution production, vitamin therapy, and infant formula, Abbott developed a comprehensive nutritional therapy program to speed the recovery of hospital patients and thereby reduce medical care costs. In the 1980s, as many as 65 percent of all hospital patients suffered from some form of malnutrition, so Abbott was highly successful in marketing their program. Another advantage of adult nutritional products was that they had a place in the growing home care market.

Abbott had similar success marketing its lines of diagnostic equipment. Electronic testing devices developed by Abbott proved more accurate than manual procedures. In order to strengthen the technical end of its diagnostic equipment research, Abbott hired two top executives away from Texas Instruments to head the division.

Schoellhorn, who advanced to chairperson and chief executive officer in 1979, continued to emphasize investment in pharmaceutical research and development in the 1980s. Seven new drugs introduced in 1982 accounted for 17 percent of sales in 1985. Foreign operations also remained extremely important to Abbott, and the company had more than 75 foreign subsidiaries and manufacturing facilities in more than 30 countries. Schoellhorn continued to support Ledder's original diversification policy. The introduction of Murine eye-care products and Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo served to expand the domestic consumer product line and promised to provide earning stability in the event of a downturn in any of the company's other markets.

First Diagnostic Test for AIDS, 1985

Schoellhorn was also credited with promoting Abbott's emphasis on diagnostic equipment, especially blood analyzers. These devices were increasingly used to detect legal and illegal substances in the bloodstream. Abbott led the trend, developing the first diagnostic tests for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), in 1985, and hepatitis. The company's "Vision" blood analyzer fit on a desktop and performed 90 percent of typical blood tests within eight minutes. By the end of the 1980s, sales of blood analysis devices represented a billion-dollar business, and medical diagnostic products (at $2.3 billion per year) constituted nearly half of Abbott's annual sales. Meanwhile, in the pharmaceuticals arena, Abbott in 1987 received FDA approval for a new drug called Hytrin for the treatment of hypertension. Hytrin was approved in 1993 for the treatment of noncancerous enlarged prostate.

Schoellhorn was widely praised as the driving force behind Abbott's phenomenal growth during the 1980s, when sales nearly tripled, profits doubled, and the pharmaceutical company rose to 90th from 197th on Fortune's list of the world's top 500 companies. The leader's aggressive management style, however, often led to conflict. Over the course of the 1980s, three presidents--James L. Vincent (1981), Kirk Raab (1985), and Jack W. Schuler (1989)--quit. In December 1989 Abbott's board of directors unseated Schoellhorn, who in turn sued the company for his job. Abbott accused Schoellhorn of misappropriation of company assets and "fraudulent conduct," adding that the former CEO exercised stock options worth $9.3 million within days of his release. Schoellhorn was succeeded by Vice-Chairman Duane L. Burnham.

Late-Century Pharmaceutical Introductions

Unlike many of its competitors (including Merck, SmithKline Beecham, and Eli Lilly), Abbott did not acquire a drug distribution manager in the early 1990s. Instead, the company plowed funds into research and development (R&D). R&D outlays rose from 5.2 percent of sales in 1982 to more than 10 percent of sales by 1994; by the latter year, R&D expenditures neared $1 billion. That year marked the company's 23rd consecutive earnings lift and helped Abbott's stock hold its value better than most competitors in the uncertain healthcare environment of the early 1990s.

Among key developments in the early 1990s was the introduction in 1990 of clarithromycin, an antibiotic developed as a successor to Abbott's erythromycin. Marketed in the United States under the name Biaxin, clarithromycin was useful in the treatment of common upper respiratory ailments such as the flu as well as other types of infections. It quickly became Abbott's flagship pharmaceutical--eventually achieving $1 billion in annual sales--remaining so into the early 21st century.

New product introductions continued in the middle years of the decade. In 1994 Abbott introduced sevoflurane, an inhalation anesthetic that soon gained popularity because of its wide range of uses. The following year, TAP, the joint venture with Takeda Chemical, received FDA approval for Prevacid, an ulcer treatment (sales of Prevacid reached $1.3 billion by 1998). In 1996 FDA clearance was granted for Norvir, a protease inhibitor for the treatment of HIV and AIDS.

Late-Century Acquisition Hits and One Near-Miss

Despite these R&D successes, Abbott's earnings were failing to increase at the high-double-digit rate that they had in the 1980s, and the company was beginning to face the risk of being gobbled up by a larger rival in the rapidly consolidating healthcare industry of the 1990s. Shrugging off the conservative management of the early 1990s, Abbott moved aggressively in the second half of the decade to expand via acquisition and thereby stave off being acquired itself. In 1996 Abbott bolstered its diagnostics division through the $867 million purchase of MediSense, Inc., a Waltham, Massachusetts-based maker of blood-testing devices for diabetics. This was the company's first major deal since the 1964 acquisition of M&R Dietetic Laboratories. In 1997 Abbott spent about $200 million for certain intravenous product lines of Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the U.S. unit of France's Sanofi S.A. Included in this deal was Carpujet, an injectable drug-delivery system based on preloaded, single-dose syringes. Also in 1997, Abbott suffered a potential setback when Takeda Chemical did not renew a ten-year contract that gave Abbott the right of first refusal to distribute Takeda's new drugs in the United States via the TAP venture. Takeda had decided to set up its own sales and marketing organization in the United States. By this time TAP was generating annual sales in excess of $2 billion, primarily from the marketing of Prevacid and Lupron, a prostate-cancer drug.

By 1997 Abbott had doubled its sales and earnings since Burnham had taken over from the ousted Schoellhorn. In early 1998 Burnham announced that he would retire in 1999. At the beginning of that year, Miles D. White, who had been a senior vice-president in charge of the diagnostics division, took over as CEO. Later in 1999, White was named chairman as well. During the leadership transition period in 1998, Abbott acquired Murex Technologies Corporation, a maker of diagnostics products, for $234 million. Abbott's appetite for growth increased exponentially with the announcement in June 1999 of a deal to acquire ALZA Corporation for $7.3 billion in stock. ALZA was a leading producer of advanced drug-delivery systems and had a solid pipeline of new pharmaceuticals under development. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), however, raised antitrust concerns about the merger, and when the two sides were unable to reach an agreement with the FTC, they called off the merger in December. Another possible factor in the collapse of the deal was the decline in Abbott's stock price following the company's agreement in November to pull 125 types of medical-diagnostic test kits off the U.S. market and to pay a $100 million civil penalty to the U.S. government. Since 1993 the FDA had been issuing warnings to Abbott regarding quality control deficiencies at its test kit plants, with the market withdrawal and payment of the fine being the outcome of this process. The FDA also cited poor manufacturing controls as the reason for its halting the sales of Abbott's clot-dissolving agent Abbokinase in early 1999.

In the meantime, Abbott managed to complete two smaller acquisitions in 1999. It acquired Perclose, Inc., a maker of sutures used to close arteries during angioplasty procedures, for about $600 million in stock. This deal marked the company's entrance into the vascular products sector. Abbott also paid $217 million in cash to Glaxo Wellcome Inc. for five anesthesia products.

Early 21st Century: Kaletra, Knoll, Humira

In January 2000 Abbott sold its agricultural products business to Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., and for the first time in decades, Abbott was a pure healthcare firm. In April of that year Abbott began marketing Biaxin XL, a new once-daily formulation of its flagship Biaxin antibiotic. The FDA in September 2000 granted expedited approval to Kaletra, a second-generation AIDS medication developed by Abbott. Kaletra had the potential to overtake the top AIDS drug, Pfizer Inc.'s Viracept, because it had fewer side effects. It also appeared that patients did not develop resistance to Kaletra over time, as happened with most other AIDS drugs, including Viracept. Kaletra did in fact turn into a blockbuster, and the world's top-selling protease inhibitor, with global sales reaching $1 billion by 2005.

In March 2001 Abbott completed a major acquisition, purchasing the Knoll Pharmaceutical Co. unit of German chemical giant BASF AG for $6.9 billion in cash. This deal, Abbott's largest to that time, added to the company's pharmaceutical lineup Meridia, an obesity drug with annual sales of about $400 million, and Synthroid, a $150 million thyroid drug. It also enabled the company to substantially increase its pharmaceutical R&D budget to more than $1.5 billion in 2001. Most importantly, the product pipeline was bolstered with the addition of a drug then called D2E7, a rheumatoid arthritis treatment that Knoll was in the process of developing. Abbott gained FDA approval for this drug in 2002, and it was launched under the brand name Humira. A European debut followed in 2003. Humira turned into another Abbott blockbuster, as global sales passed $1 billion by 2005 and then $2 billion just a year later, making it the company's top-selling product of all time. Aiding this skyrocketing rise were the subsequent approvals for Humira to treat other diseases, including psoriatic arthritis and Crohn's disease.

In another 2001 acquisition, Abbott bolstered its diagnostic products business with the $362 million purchase of Vysis, Inc., of Downers Grove, Illinois. Vysis produced test kits that analyzed patients' genetic material for such things as the recurrence of bladder cancer. In another embarrassing episode for Abbott, the TAP Pharmaceutical Products joint venture in late 2001 pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate federal law and agreed to pay a settlement of $875 million in a case involving allegations that TAP employees had given doctors improper inducements to prescribe the prostate-cancer drug Lupron. Three years later, TAP agreed to pay an additional $150 million to resolve civil lawsuits that had been filed in regard to the marketing and pricing of Lupron.

Abbott Laboratories continued its deal making in 2002 with the divestment of the Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo and Murine and Clear Eyes eye-care product brands. The company's vascular products business received another boost with the purchase of the cardiovascular-stent business of the U.K. firm Biocompatibles International plc for $234.5 million. During the year the FDA approved Abbott's Synthroid thyroid medication decades after it had been first marketed but also determined that the company's diagnostic-equipment plant near Chicago still failed to meet manufacturing standards, thwarting Abbott's plans to resume selling the scores of diagnostic test kits that it had been forced to pull from the market in 1999. In October 2002 the company launched an effort to streamline its global manufacturing operations that involved a reduction in the workforce of more than 2,000, or about 3 percent, and a pretax charge of $174 million. The charge reduced Abbott's net earnings for the year to $2.79 billion, while revenues reached a record $17.68 billion.

In July 2003 a subsidiary of Abbott pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of obstructing a criminal investigation of an alleged scheme to defraud the government's Medicare and Medicaid health-insurance programs. Abbott agreed to pay more than $600 million in criminal and civil fines and payments as part of its plea. In December 2003 the FDA finally gave Abbott a green light to resume selling its full array of diagnostic tests in the United States. The lengthy regulatory dispute cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, and Abbott ended up paying more than $225 million in fines and related costs.

2004 Forward: More Wheeling and Dealing

In 2004 Abbott, still under the leadership of White, continued its wheeling and dealing. On the acquisition side, the largest deal was the purchase of TheraSense, Inc., for around $1.2 billion in cash. This purchase substantially strengthened Abbott's position in the glucose-monitoring portion of the diagnostic products market. TheraSense, based in Alameda, California, was a rapidly growing and innovative producer of blood glucose self-monitoring systems. The acquisition propelled the revenues of Abbott's diabetes care unit past the $1 billion mark by 2005. In the meantime, Abbott in the spring of 2004 spun off its slow-growing hospital products business to shareholders, creating the newly independent, publicly traded Hospira, Inc. The divested business, which had generated about 13 percent of Abbott's 2003 revenues of $19.68 billion, or roughly $2.5 billion, concentrated on medication delivery systems, critical care devices, and specialty injectable pharmaceuticals.

The tremendous growth in the sales of Humira helped push Abbott's revenues to $22.34 billion by 2005. Although Humira was far from reaching its peak sales, Abbott was under pressure to find new blockbusters in anticipation of this inevitable occurrence. Significant setbacks in its pharmaceutical pipeline in 2005 cast doubt about Abbott's future. High hopes for Simdax, a heart medication, were dampened when medical studies questioned its efficacy. In addition, in October 2005 the FDA rejected Abbott's application to sell Xinlay, an experimental drug for treating prostate cancer.

In the wake of these disappointments, Abbott turned acquisitive once again. Seeking to bolster its medical device side to compensate for the struggles in pharmaceutical development, the company purchased the vascular business of Guidant Corporation for approximately $4.1 billion in cash in April 2006. The divestment of this business had been a regulatory requirement of Boston Scientific Corporation's acquisition of Guidant. The deal made Abbott the third largest player in the global vascular care market. A key device acquired from Guidant was a drug-coated heart stent called Xience. Abbott gained regulatory approval to begin selling this device in Europe later in 2006, and then in November 2007 the FDA granted approval for the commencement of U.S. sales. Xience had the potential for global annual sales well in excess of $1 billion.

Abbott also used the acquisition route to prop up its drug pipeline, spending $3.8 billion in cash for Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in December 2006. Acquiring the Cranbury, New Jersey, company provided a particular boost to Abbott in the area of cholesterol medications. Abbott had grown TriCor, used to lower blood fats called triglycerides, into a $900-million-plus drug since its 1998 introduction. The Kos purchase brought into the Abbott stable Niaspan, used to raise levels of HDL (so-called good cholesterol) and Advicor, a drug combining Niaspan with lovastatin, a drug used to lower levels of LDL, or bad cholesterol.

In early 2007 Abbott reached an agreement to sell its diagnostics products division to General Electric Company for $8.13 billion. Abbott aimed to shed a slower-growth, lower-margin business and focus more of its attention and resources on the high-risk, high-reward areas of pharmaceutical and vascular-care device development. The deal collapsed, however, in July 2007 when the two sides were unable to agree on final terms.

During this same period, Abbott was the recipient of a great deal of negative publicity concerning controversial actions it was alleged to have taken in the marketing and selling of its AIDS drugs. Most notably, a page-one story in a January 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal contended that Abbott had quintupled the price of its AIDS drug Norvir, which was used in combination with drugs from other companies, as part of a strategy to persuade patients to drop Norvir and switch to Abbott's combination pill Kaletra. Lawsuits were soon filed charging Abbott with abusing its monopoly position in the AIDS drug market. Later in 2007 the company broke an industry taboo by suing a French AIDS group that had launched a cyber attack on its web site.

Despite the failed divestment of the diagnostics unit and the controversies swirling around the company's AIDS medications, Abbott's prospects appeared bright. Sales of Humira were still growing strongly and were expected to top $3 billion in 2007. In addition, the FDA's approval of Xience late in 2007 paved the way for this stent to become the next blockbuster in the Abbott portfolio.

Principal Subsidiaries

Abbott Bioresearch Center, Inc.; Abbott Cardiovascular Inc.; Abbott Diabetes Care Inc.; Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation; Abbott Health Products, Inc.; Abbott Home Infusion Services of New York, Inc.; Abbott International LLC; Abbott Laboratories Inc.; Abbott Laboratories International Co.; Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd.; Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated; Abbott Laboratories Services Corp.; Abbott Molecular Inc.; Abbott Pharmaceutical Corporation; Abbott Point of Care Inc.; Abbott Spine Inc.; Abbott Vascular Inc.; Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc.; Aeropharm Technology, LLC; AVI Corp.; Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions, Inc.; BioDisplay Technologies, Inc.; CG Nutritionals, Inc.; Gene-Trak, Inc.; Gene-Trak Systems Industrial Diagnostics Corp.; Guidant Endovascular Solutions, Inc.; IEP Pharmaceutical Devices, LLC; IMTC Technologies, Inc.; Integrated Vascular Systems, Inc.; Knoll Pharmaceutical Company; Kos Life Sciences, Inc.; Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Murex Diagnostics, Inc.; Natural Supplement Association, Incorporated; S&G Nutritionals Inc.; Solartek Products, Inc.; Spine Next America Corp.; Swan-Myers, Incorporated; Tobal Products Incorporated; Vectoris Corporation; Woodside Biomedical, Inc.; X Technologies Inc.; ZonePerfect Nutrition Company; Abbott Laboratories Argentina, S.A.; Abbott Australasia Pty. Limited (Australia); EAS Australia Pty Ltd.; Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H. (Austria); Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Ltd. (85%); Abbott S.A. (Belgium); Abbott Vascular International BVBA (Belgium); Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil); Abbott Laboratories, Limited (Canada); Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited; Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada; Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (China); Guidant International Trading (Shanghai) Co. (China); Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (China; 75%); Abbott Laboratories de Colombia, S.A.; Abbott Laboratories d.o.o. (Croatia); Abbott Laboratories s.r.o. (Czech Republic); Abbott Laboratories A/S (Denmark); Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda.; Abbott Limited Egypt; Abbott, S.A. de C.V. (El Salvador); Abbott OY (Finland); Abbott France S.A.S.; Abbott GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); Abbott Laboratories (Hellas) S.A. (Greece); Abbott Laboratorios, S.A. (Guatemala); Abbott Laboratories Limited (Hong Kong); Abbott Laboratories (Hungary) Health Products and Medical Equipment Trading and Servicing Limited Liability Company; Abbott India Limited (61.7%); P. T. Abbott Indonesia; Abbott Laboratories, Ireland, Limited; Abbott S.p.A. (Italy); Abbott Japan K.K.; Abbott Japan Co., Ltd.; Abbott Korea Limited; Abbott Laboratories Baltics (Latvia); Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L. (Lebanon); Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.; Abbott Laboratories de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique), Limitada; Abbott B.V. (Netherlands); Abbott Laboratories B.V. (Netherlands); Abbott Nederland C.V. (Netherlands); Abbott Laboratories (N.Z.) Limited (New Zealand); EAS Asia/Pacific Limited (New Zealand); Abbott Norge AS (Norway); Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited (77.9%); Abbott Laboratories, C.A. (Panama); Abbott Laboratorios S.A. (Peru); Abbott Laboratories (Philippines); Abbott Laboratories Poland Sp.z.o.o.; Abbott Laboratorios, Limitada (Portugal); Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited; Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o.; Abbott Laboratories d.o.o. (Slovenia); Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Proprietary) Limited; Abbott Laboratories, S.A. (Spain); Abbott Scandinavia A.B. (Sweden); Abbott AG (Switzerland); Abbott Laboratories S.A. (Switzerland); Abbott Laboratories Tanzania Limited; Abbott Laboratories Limited (Thailand); Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat Ve Tecaret Limited Sirketi (Turkey); Abbott Diabetes Care Limited (U.K.); Abbott Laboratories Limited (U.K.); Abbott Vascular Devices Limited (U.K.); Experimental and Applied Sciences UK Limited; Knoll Pharmaceuticals Unlimited (U.K.); TheraSense UK Limited; Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A.; Abbott Laboratories, C.A. (Venezuela).

Principal Competitors

Merck & Co., Inc.; Sanofi-Aventis; Roche Holding Ltd.; Pfizer Inc.; AstraZeneca PLC; Johnson & Johnson; Boston Scientific Corporation; Novartis AG; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Eli Lilly and Company; GlaxoSmithKline plc; Schering-Plough Corporation; Bayer AG; Nestlé S.A.; Royal Numico N.V.

Further Reading

"Abbott: Profiting from Products That Cut Costs," Business Week, June 18, 1984, pp. 56+.

Arndt, Michael, "Diagnosis: Shrewd Moves," Business Week, January 29, 2007, p. 76.

"Baby Bottle Battle," Forbes, November 28, 1988, pp. 222+.

Barrett, Amy, and Richard A. Melcher, "Drugmaker, Heal Thyself," Business Week, October 11, 1999, pp. 88+.

Bennett, Johanna, "Abbott Labs Pumps Up Its Product Line," Barron's, April 2, 2007, p. 43.

Benoit, Ellen, "Abbott Laboratories: Room at the Top," Financial World, October 17, 1989, p. 28.

Berss, Marcia, "Aloof but Not Asleep," Forbes, August 29, 1994, pp. 43-44.

Bleiberg, Robert M., "Abbott and Costello: The Ban on Cyclamates Is a Comedy--or Tragedy--of Errors," Barron's, October 9, 1978, p. 7.

"Bob Schoellhorn Is Refusing to Go Quietly," Business Week, March 26, 1990, pp. 34+.

Burton, Thomas M., "Abbott Laboratories and Alza Call Off Their Deal," Wall Street Journal, December 17, 1999, p. B10.

------, "Abbott Labs to Buy BASF Unit for $6.9 Billion," Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2000, pp. A3, A12.

------, "Abbott Says Wait for Drugs Will Be Worth It," Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2003, p. B2.

------, "Abbott's White Wins CEO Job," Wall Street Journal, September 16, 1998, p. A3.

------, "Abbott to Pay $100 Million in Fine to United States," Wall Street Journal, November 3, 1999, p. A3.

------, "Abbott to Purchase TheraSense," Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2004, p. B4.

------, "Abbott to Spin Off Hospital Products in a Shift of Focus," Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2003, p. B5.

------, "Federal Judge Clears Abbott in Formula Case: Bid Process for Infant Food Is Called 'Questionable,' but Oversight Is Faulted," Wall Street Journal, June 1, 1994, p. A3.

Burton, Thomas M., and Patricia Callahan, "Abbott Unit Is Guilty in Liquid-Nutrient Case," Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2003, p. A8.

Burton, Thomas M., Geeta Anand, and Gardiner Harris, "FDA Hits Abbott Labs, Schering," Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2002, p. A3.

Carreyrou, John, "New Regimen: Inside Abbott's Tactics to Protect AIDS Drug," Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2007, p. A1.

Carreyrou, John, and Avery Johnson, "Abbott Breaks with Industry, Sues AIDS Group," Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2007, p. B1.

Carter, Kim, "Abbott Laboratories Betting Its Future on the Development of New Products," Modern Healthcare, November 7, 1986, pp. 138+.

Chase, Brett, "Can Abbott Be the Next J&J?" Crain's Chicago Business, April 18, 2005, p. 1.

Colias, Mike, "Abbott Faces Stent Squeeze," Crain's Chicago Business, July 10, 2006, p. 2.

------, "Can Abbott Restock Its Cabinet?" Crain's Chicago Business, May 29, 2006, p. 4.

Dooren, Jennifer Corbett, and Avery Johnson, "Abbott Stent Gets Panel Backing Despite Clot Worries," Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2007, p. B3.

Hamilton, David P., "Abbott Enters Arthritis-Drug War with FDA Approval of Humira," Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2003, p. D4.

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— April Dougal Gasbarre; Updated by David E. Salamie