Solvay costs and Meridia withdrawal take heavy toll on Abbott Labs 3rd-qtr 2010 results

US health care major Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) posted disappointing financial results for the third quarter of 2010, saying it earned $891 million, or $0. 57 per share, down from $1.48 billion, or $0.95 per share, in the year ago period. This reflected costs associated with its $6.2 billion acquisition of Belgian drugmaker Solvay Pharmaceuticals and the recent withdrawal of its obesity drug Meridia (sibutramine; The Pharma Letter October 11). Abbott’s shares were down 1.7% at $52 in mid-morning trading yesterday.

Diluted earnings per share, excluding the specified items, were $1.05, a 14.1%rise, at the high end of Abbott's previously issued guidance range of $1.03 to $1.05. Diluted earnings per share under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) were $0.57, primarily reflecting costs associated with recently announced restructuring actions for the integration of the Solvay Pharmaceuticals acquisition. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of $1.04 per share on average.

Worldwide sales increased 11.8 percent to $8.7 billion, including an unfavorable 1.0% effect of foreign exchange rates, missing the $8.9 billion average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Growth in the quarter was driven by worldwide pharmaceutical sales, which increased 21.7% to $4.94 billion, including the contribution from the Solvay acquisition, as well as worldwide vascular products sales, which increased 18.6%, Abbott noted. The firm’s top selling product, the arthritis product Humira (adalimumab) generated revenues of $1.68 billion for the quarter, a rise of 12.6%, followed by Trilipix/Tricor (fenofibric acid) for lipid disorders, which leapt 22.1% to $404 million. However, sales of the HIV/AIDS drug Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) fell 7.2% to $328 million, and cancer drug Lupron (leuprolide acetate) was down 3.3% at $189 million. Cholesterol lowerer Niaspan (niacin) rose 5% to $225 million.