
Illinois-based Abbott (NYSE:ABT) released a 2nd-quarter earnings report showing some strong momentum, but the healthcare giant’s medical device sector didn’t fare so well.
In total Abbott reported 1.9% year-over-year growth in sales and 14.6% growth in adjusted per-share earnings, but those figures were driven largely by a 3.7% boost in the company’s diagnostics business. Medical devices saw a 1.2% increase in sales in Q2, and half of its medtech units saw drops in U.S. revenue.
Abbott’s total medical device sales amounted to $1.37 billion for Q2, about 36% of which was generated in the U.S. The company’s diabetes care unit dropped 27.3% in U.S. revenue, leading to a 9.8% decline overall for the division.
Also in U.S. revenues, the vascular care unit’s sales dropped 1.9% and the drug-eluting stent/bioresorbable vascular scaffold division dropped 13% during the quarter. Abbott saw the biggest U.S. gains in its medical optics division, which grew 14.5%, largely on the back of cataract product sales.
International figures were generally more positive. The beleaguered diabetes division saw a 2.5% boost in foreign markets, and the vascular division grew 1.4%, due in part to adoption of the company’s MitraClip mitral valve repair implant. The DES/BVS division fared better but still dropped 0.5%.