A boost in pharmaceutical and medical-device sales gave Abbott Laboratories a good second quarter this year. The North Chicago, Ill.-based company reported a quarterly net income of $784 million.
Pharmaceutical sales increased 46% to $977 million in the second quarter. Including foreign exchange and the impact from last year's acquisition of Russia-based Veropharm, sales still increased double-digits in the quarter, and the company saw above average growth in foreign markets like India, China and Colombia.
"We've achieved another quarter of strong sales growth led by our global diagnostics and branded generics businesses," Miles D. White, chairman and CEO of Abbott, said in a news release. "We're well on track to achieve our financial objectives for the year despite a challenging currency environment."
In fact, global sales were $5.17 billion in the second quarter of 2015, a 10.8% increase, just ahead of estimates of $5.15 billion by Thomson analysts. Sales in emerging markets increased 20.6%, including the impact of 2014 acquisitions.
Abbott saw a rise in medical-device sales, as well, with global sales increasing 3.1% to $1.3 billion in the quarter. Diabetes-care sales increased 5.3% to $278 million worldwide, driven by international adoption of the company's FreeStyle Libre Flash Glucose Monitoring System, which eliminates the need for routine finger pricking during glucose testing.
The company has applied for U.S. regulatory approval of the FreeStyle Libre Pro Flash Glucose Monitoring System for professional use, and has received European approval for Absorb GT1, which combines the world's first fully dissolving stent with a next-generation delivery catheter. Abbott has completed submission for regulatory approval of Absorb in the U.S. and Japan.
Abbott shares have increased 11% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen nearly 3%. The stock has increased 23% in the last 12 months.
