Abbott Laboratories was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888. In 2008, Abbott had over $29 billion in revenue.
In 1985, the company developed the first HIV blood screening test. The company's drug portfolio includes Humira, a drug for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, moderate to severe chronic psoriasis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Norvir, a treatment for HIV; Depakote, an anticonvulsant drug; and Synthroid, a synthetic thyroid hormone. Abbott also has a broad range of medical devices, diagnostics and immunoassay products as well as nutritional products, including Ensure, a line of well known meal replacement shakes, and EAS, the largest producer of performance based nutritional supplements.
Abbott’s in vitro diagnostics business is a world leader in immunoassays and blood screening. Abbott’s broad range of medical tests and diagnostic instrument systems are used worldwide by hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, and physician offices to diagnose and monitor diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, cancer, heart failure and metabolic disorders, as well as assess other important indicators of general health.
Abbott Point-of-Care manufactures diagnostic products for blood analysis to provide health care professionals critical diagnostics information accurately and immediately at the point of patient care. In addition to its offerings in the blood gas and chemistries segment, Abbott also provides point-of-care cardiac assays to the emergency room.
Organization
Abbott's core businesses focus on pharmaceuticals, medical devices and nutritional products, which have been supplemented through several notable acquisitions. It has also divested itself of less profitable businesses through sales and spinoffs.
In 2001, Abbott acquired Knoll, the pharmaceutical division of BASF.
In 2004, Abbott spun off its hospital products division into a new 14,000 employee company named Hospira, and acquired TheraSense, a diabetes care company, which it merged with its MediSense division to become Abbott Diabetes Care. In 2006, Abbott assisted Boston Scientific in its purchase of Guidant Corporation. As part of the agreement, Abbott purchased the vascular device division of Guidant.
In January 2007, Abbott Laboratories agreed to sell its in vitro diagnostics and Point-of-Care diagnostics divisions to General Electric for more than $8 billion. These units were slated to be integrated into the GE Healthcare business unit. The transaction was approved by the Boards of Directors of Abbott and GE and was targeted to close in the first half of 2007. However, on July 11, 2007, Abbott announced that it had terminated its agreement with GE because both parties could not agree on terms of the deal.
On September 8, 2007, Abbott completed the sale of the UK manufacturing plant at Queenborough to Aesica Pharmaceuticals, a Private equity-owned UK manufacturer. No announcements have been made restricting the movement of staff to Abbott unlike other sell outs.
Februaury 26, 2009, Abbott completed its acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics based out of Santa Ana, Ca. The acquisition gives Abbott a Vision Eye Care division which it has been looking to get into in the past years.
December 18th 2009, Abbott completed its acquisition of an Israeli-based LIMS company STARLIMS. Under the terms of the deal, Abbott Laboratories acquires the company for $14 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $123 million.
History
In 1888 at the age of 30, Dr. Wallace C. Abbott, an 1885 graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the Abbott Alkaloidal Company. At the time he was a practicing physician and owned a drug store. His innovation was the use of the active - or alkaloid - part of a medicinal plant that he formed into tiny pills which he called “dosimetric granules.” This was successful since it allowed more consistent and effective dosages for patients.
