Abbott Laboratories Inc. continues to post strong growth with its drug-eluting stents, helping carry the diversified healthcare company to $1.29 billion in second-quarter profits.
Global sales of Abbott’s Xience line of vascular stents were particularly robust, rising $143.2 million, or 43 percent, to $658 million during the three months ended June 30. The gain came despite an adverse impact of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies, trimming reported revenues for the vascular and medical products segment by roughly $56 million during the quarter.
Overall, net revenues for the Abbott Park, Ill.-based firm rose 0.9 percent. Quarterly net income was down about 3 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. But the company said it still expects to fulfill its previous projections for 2009 net income of between $3.65 to $3.70 a share, or up to $5.7 million billion for the full year.
During a Q&A session with analysts Wednesday, CFO John Thomas said the Xience platform accounted for over half of all the drug-eluting stents implanted in the United States during April, May and June. The Xience V stent, he said, remains at the top of the heap with an individual product market share “in the high 20s.”
European regulators gave CE Mark approval to the Xience Prime — Abbott’s next-generation line of stents — in June and last month Abbott began enrolling U.S. patients for upcoming trials of the device, expected to reach the American market within three years.
“We recently made the first shipments of Xience Prime to select accounts and received a very positive feedback,” Thomas said, adding that surgeons were “clearly impressed with the deliverability of the platform, particularly in challenging cases.”
The executive also said Xience is expected to receive approvals for sale in several other countries over the next year, including China, Canada, and Japan.
“As we look ahead into the third quarter for Abbott vascular, we expect sales to be up low single digits on a year-over-year basis,” Thomas said.