International sales carried the day for the medical device business of Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), as U.S. sales fell nearly 5 percent during the first quarter of 2011.
The Chicago-area medical products conglomerate pulled in $1.2 billion in sales from its medical device unit, which makes a suite of stents, optics and diagnostics. The unit’s Q1 total was an 11 percent increase over sales during the same period last year, paced by international revenues, which rose 27 percent to $679 million.
Strong sales overseas were more than enough to overcome softer medical device sales in the U.S., where revenues fell to $533 million during the three months ended March 31.
Abbott’s stent-making business paced the medical device unit with $845 million in sales, a 13 percent increase from the same period last year. And international sales also made up for a 6 percent drop in U.S. sales, to $389 million. Abbott said sales were particularly strong in developing countries — including China, India and Russia — due to increased procedure volumes in those nations.
Company officials said they expect to continue to boost Abbott’s vascular business with the release of 10 additional technologies in the next five years, including its Absorb bioresorbable vascular stent for treating blocked coronary arteries, which received the CE Mark in January.
Overall, Abbott saw net income slide 14 percent to $864 million on $9 billion in sales, compared to a $1 billion profit on $7.7 billion in sales for the same period last year. The company also announced that it had paid out more than $103 million in restructuring costs related to its announcement last quarter that it would cut 1,900 jobs from its pharmaceutical business.
Abbott also announced that CEO Miles White was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honor that places him among some of the most respected minds in U.S. history.
The honorary society was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock and has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, according to a prepared release. Some of those dignitaries include George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
White will be inducted at a ceremony Oct. 1 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.
