ABBOTT 1st QTR NET EARNINGS LEAP 16%

For the first quarter of 1992, US-based Abbott Laboratories recorded a 15.8% jump in net earnings to $294 million, on sales 13.6% higher at $1.88 billion. Earnings per share rose to 69 cents, a rise of 16.9% on the like, year earlier period.

Abbott is nearly always the first of the US drug majors to report quarterly figures, as it is this time, and again a record for the company. Abbott's chairman and chief executive, Duane Burnham, says the first quarter benefited from "encouraging worldwide sales of our new macrolide antibiotic Biaxin (clarithromycin) and the US introduction of Omniflox (temafloxa-cin), an Abbott-discovered quinolone anti-infective." In addition, he notes that Abbott introduced a diagnostic test in the USA for simultaneous detection of antibodies to both strains of human immuno-deficiency virus, namely HIV-1 and HIV-2. Also contributing were a favorable product mix, good unit growth and continuing productivity increases.

Sales of pharmaceutical and nutritional poducts reached $997 million, up 15.7%, in this first quarter, while hospital and laboratory product turnover increased only 11.2% to $881 million. The best growth came on the domestic market, where sales jumped 15.1% to $1.18 billion while sales on international markets (including direct exports from the USA) improved 11% to $701 million, the company reports