Increases In Sales And Earnings At Abbott

Abbott Laboratories has announced its third-quarter and nine-monthresults ended September 30, 1997, which show continued solid growth despite the effects of a relatively strong dollar. Worldwide sales for the third quarter rose 8.3% to $2.87 billion and reached $8.77 billion, up 9.3%, for the nine months. Earnings per share for the third quarter rose to $0.61, a jump of 13%, and net earnings rose 12% to $471 million, while EPS for the first nine months climbed 13.1% to $1.98. Net earnings were $1.53 billion, up 11.4% on the first nine months of 1996.

Duane Burnham, chairman and chief executive of Abbott, put particular emphasis on the strong performance of pharmaceutical and nutritional sales, which reached $1.63 billion for the third quarter, a rise of 11.7% from the same period last year, with turnover in the USA representing $1.1 billion. For the nine months, worldwide sales of pharmaceutical and nutritional products were $5.13 billion, up 11.8%, with international revenues accounting for $1.77 billion.

Total domestic sales for both the third quarter and nine-month periods showed double-digit growth, up 11.1% and 11.7% to $1.78 billion and $5.40 billion respectively. International revenues, however, were unfavorably impacted by the effect of the relatively strong dollar, and rose 4% and 5.7% respectively for the two periods.