Abbott's 1st-qtr profit drops 19% to $697.5M

US health care major Abbott Laboratories said that its first-quarter 2007 net income fell 19% on the like, year-ago period, to $697.5 million, or $0.45 per share, impacted by integration costs related to last year's acquisition of the vascular business of Guidant Corp from Boston Scientific.

Excluding those items and certain discontinued operations, the North Chicago, Illinois-based company reported earnings per share of L0.53 for the latest quarter. During the period, Abbott's income jumped 16% to $5.29 billion, driven by the strong performance of its anti-inflammatory antibody drug Humira (adalimumab), which earned $571.0 million, a 46% increase.

An analyst survey conducted by Thomson Financial predicted EPS of $0.52 on revenue of $5.26 billion. Although the firm's net income beat expectations, its shares fell more than 2% to $57.69 in morning trading on the day the results were announced, April 18.