Abbott Laboratories information by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Abbott Laboratories is a global health care and drug company that makes nutritional supplement products and medical diagnostic devices and pharmaceutical drugs. Abbott Laboratories has about 70,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries. The corporate headquarters are in Abbott Park, Illinois, located near North Chicago, Illinois.

2007 - AIDS activists in nearly 20 countries have called for a global boycott of Abbott products over what they say are the pharmaceutical firm's intimidating business tactics in Thailand.

EnsurePlus by Abbott Laboratories
Columbus, Ohio-based Abbott Laboratories developed both the standard and experimental formulas, and also funded the study below:
A nutritional supplement made by Abbott Laboratories containing antioxidants, minerals and other nutrients can boost immune function in frail older people living in nursing homes. Those who took 240 milliliters (8 ounces) daily of the enriched supplement for 10 weeks had fewer fevers and were less likely to require antibiotics than study participants given a standard nutritional supplement. They also responded more strongly to vaccination against influenza. Older people living in nursing homes or long-term care facilities are at high risk of infection, Dr. Bobbi Longkamp-Henken of the University of Florida in Gainesville and colleagues note in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Fifty-two nursing home residents aged 65 and older were given the experimental formula, which contained protein, beta carotene, vitamins C and E, zinc, selenium, fructo-oligosaccharides (non-digestible sugars that help "feed" the good bacteria in the colon), and structured triacylglycerol. Forty received a standard liquid nutrition product, EnsurePlus. Study participants were immunized against the flu after four weeks on the supplement, and then stayed on the supplements for an additional six weeks. Forty-three percent of those on the experimental formula achieved levels of antibodies sufficient to protect them against the flu, compared to 23 percent of study participants on the standard formula. They also showed higher production of white blood cells targeted to the flu virus. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2006.

Abbott laboratories financial position
2007 - The planned sale of Abbott Laboratories core diagnostics business to General Electric Co. and earlier deals should assure Abbott "sustained double-digit" profit growth in future years. Abbott will likely use most proceeds from the $83 billion GE deal to pay down company debt, with some of the money likely to supplement its ongoing stock-repurchase program, company Chief Executive Miles White told analysts. The diversified company will sell its "in-vitro" laboratory testing business and its Point-of-Care diagnostics business to GE in an all-cash deal that will yield after-tax proceeds of about $6 billion. The in-vitro business involves routine laboratory tests, while the Point-of-Care tests involve those done typically at a patient's bedside -- such as blood chemistry work. Abbott's more profitable molecular-diagnostics business, which includes sophisticated tests for bladder cancer and for a gene mutation that signals increased risk of breast cancer, are not part of the transaction. Nor are Abbott's lucrative products used by diabetics to monitor their levels of blood sugar. Lower debt will position the company to acquire new products -- such as new molecular diagnostics, new spinal products or even new businesses -- although Abbott currently has no acquisitions in its sights. Abbott's recent purchase of businesses with high profit margins, such as Kos Pharmaceuticals, and its sale of low-margin businesses such as hospital products should fuel strong earnings growth in future years -- even as some products face generic competition. This bullish outlook comes at a time when profits have shrunk dramatically at rival drugmakers -- including Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. -- due to competition of their products with cheaper generics.

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