Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories

Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: ABT S&P 500 Component
Industry	Pharmaceutical
Founded	1888 (1888) (as Abbott Alkaloidal Company)
Founder	Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott
Successor	AbbVie
Headquarters	North Chicago, Illinois, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Pharmaceutical products Medical devices Diagnostic assays Nutritional products Animal health products
Revenue	US$ 39.874 billion (2012)
Operating income	US$ 08.085 billion (2012)
Net income	US$ 05.963 billion (2012)
Total assets	US$ 42.953 billion (2013) US$ 67.235 billion (2012)
Total equity	US$ 26.813 billion (2012)
Number of employees	91,000 (2012)
Website	abbott.com

Abbott Laboratories is an American pharmaceuticals and health care products company. It has 90,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries. The company headquarters are in Abbott Park, North Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888. In 2010, revenues were over $35 billion.

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 meal replacement shakes; and EAS, the largest producer of performance-based nutritional supplements.

The company's in-vitro diagnostics business performs immunoassays and blood screening. Its 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 indicators of health.

Abbott Point-of-Care manufactures diagnostic products for blood analysis to provide health care professionals diagnostics information at the point of patient care. Abbott also provides point-of-care cardiac assays to the emergency room.

History

Dr. Wallace C. Abbott

In 1888 at the age of 30, Dr. Wallace C. Abbott (1857–1921), 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 part of a medicinal plant, generally an alkaloid (morphine, quinine, strychnine and codeine), which he formed into tiny pills which he called "dosimetric granules". This was successful since it allowed more consistent and effective dosages for patients.

As the company's overseas sales and reputation was growing, Abbott had to consider new ways to organize its sections. International expansion began in 1931 when Abbott formed its first international office in Montreal, Canada (Fact 21). Expansion continued in 1962 when Abbott entered into a joint venture with Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, to manufacture radio-pharmaceuticals. During this year, Abbott's expansion projects in England, Italy and France were also completed.

With all these developments abroad, Abbott adopted an International Division Structure (Ranjan 41). Under this organization of management, Abbott added another division to the three product based divisions to be responsible for all foreign operations. This international division is itself divided regionally, with each country reporting to the international management.

In 1967, the company successfully challenged the FDA on labeling regulations before the Supreme Court in Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner.

In 2009, it unsuccessfully attempted to bar other pharmaceutical companies from producing a drug it had a patent on in Abbott v. Sandoz. However, it was determined that Abbott had patented the drug by a specific process of creation and the other companies were not infringing on the patent when they used a different process to arrive at the same final product.

Organization

Abbott's core businesses focus on pharmaceuticals, medical devices and nutritional products, which have been supplemented through acquisitions. The firm's divisions are:

• Animal Health: anesthesia for animals, Clinicare liquid animal diets and other veterinary products
• Diabetes Care: Glucose monitoring devices and medicine
• Diagnostics: Hematology, immunodiagnostic, oncology and clinical chemistry (including the i-Stat)
• Molecular: analysis of DNA, RNA, and proteins at the molecular level
• Nutrition: baby nutrition (Similac, Isomil, and Gain), adult health products (Ensure and ZonePerfect) and special dietary needs (Glucerna)
• Vascular: stents, vessel closure devices, endovascular and coronary technologies

It has divested itself of less profitable businesses through sales and spinoffs. In 1964, it acquired Ross Laboratories, making Ross a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbott. In 2001, the company acquired Knoll, the pharmaceutical division of BASF. In 2002, it divested the Selsun Blue brand to Chattem. Later in 2002, the company sold Clear Eyes and Murine to Prestige Brands.

In 2004, it 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 2007, Ross was renamed Abbott Nutrition.

In January 2007, the company 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 the parties could not agree on the terms of the deal.

On September 8, 2007, the company 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. On February 26, 2009, the company completed its acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics based in Santa Ana, California. The acquisition gives Abbott a Vision Eye Care division.

In February 2010, Abbott completed its $6.2 billion (EUR 4.5 billion) acquisition of Solvay Pharmaceuticals. This provided Abbott with a large and complementary portfolio of pharmaceutical products and also expanding its presence in key emerging markets.

On March 22, 2010, the company completed its acquisition of a Hollywood, Florida-based LIMS company STARLIMS. Under the terms of the deal, Abbott Laboratories acquired the company for $14 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $123 million. On April 21, 2010, Abbott completed its acquisition of Facet Biotech Corporation, strengthening its pharmaceutical pipeline in immunology and oncology. On May 21, 2010, Abbott Laboratories said it will buy Piramal Healthcare Ltd.'s Healthcare Solutions unit for $2.2 billion to become the biggest drug company in India.

AbbVie

On October 19, 2011, the company announced that it planned to separate into two companies, one in medical products and the other in research-based pharmaceuticals. Both are now publicly traded. The medical products company retained the Abbott name. The research-based pharmaceuticals company is named AbbVie. In preparation for this reorganization, Abbott has "drastically cut expenses" and taken a US$478,000,000 charge in Q3-2012 to pay for the restructuring. The separation was effective as of January 1, 2013. AbbVie was officially listed in the New York Stock Exchange on January 2, 2013.

Abbott, located in the north suburbs of the Chicago area, previously announced the splitting of the company. On November 28, 2012, Abbott stated in the Chicago Tribune that once it splits into two on January 1, the shareholders of the company would receive one share of AbbVie common stock for each share that they owned of Abbott. The deal was approved on November 28.

Abbott announced the shareholders of the company will receive their one share of AbbVie common stock beginning on January 1, the day the company will split. Only the shareholders who are listed as owning a share of Abbott by December 12 will be able to receive one share of AbbVie. The new company, AbbVie, whose symbols are, ABBV, is expected to begin trading on the New Year Stock Exchange on January 2. Abbott will continue to be run by Miles White, the chairman and chief executive of the company. AbbVie will be led by new named CEO, Richard Gonzalez, previous executive of Abbott. AbbVie will feature the drug Humira.

Divisional structure

The company split into three main divisions based on their products: pharmaceuticals, hospital products and nutritional products (Ranjan). The product division structure worked well for their Chicago headquarters, but when international expansion began in Montreal, Canada, in 1931, Abbott adopted an international division structure (Abbott Fact Book). Under this organization, Abbott's international division was responsible for all the foreign operations.

Each international office reports to the international management division in Chicago.

Another division was added in 1973, called the diagnostics division, which manages all the diagnostics business on a global scale, separate from the international division (Corporate). In 2010, Abbott acquired Solvay SA's pharmaceutical unit (Press). However, Abbott has had to cut jobs to minimize the costs caused by areas of overlap with Solvay (Reuters).

Management structure

The company's chief executive officer is Miles D. White, who oversees the executive vice presidents of every internal division (Scussa). The company has implemented a new management structure to provide leadership focus in the three product divisions, clearly defining the responsibilities of each executive vice presidents. For example, Jeffrey M. Leiden has been appointed executive vice president of pharmaceuticals and reports to White (Scussa).

Within each division headed by the executive vice presidents, there are senior vice presidents who are responsible for all departments that compose the division. Directors of the employees within the departments report to the senior vice presidents and oversee the managers (human resources). This type of company division is called a matrix structure, which incorporates both divisional and departmental separation within the headquarters. Furthermore, this type of hierarchy within the divisions allows for a hierarchical control over each employee, with entry level employees who are constantly reporting to a higher-ranked employee.

Abbott also uses job rotation, the lateral movement of employees within their level of hierarchy, to keep employees motivated and diversify their work.

Management practices

Along with being ranked 75th on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S.-based corporation, today, Abbott has been placed fourth on the "Best Places to Work in Industry" list by The Scientist and one of the "Best Companies for Women" (100 Best).

In 2012, the company was ranked 15th in the Top 20 BioPharma employers by Science Careers.

Litigation

Depakote

In October 2011, the company agreed to pay at least $1.3 billion for illegally marketing its Depakote epilepsy drug to the U.S. government and 24 states. To date, it is the third-largest pharmaceutical settlement in U.S. history.

On October 2, 2012, the company was charged with a $500 million fine and $198.5 million forfeiture for illegal marketing. This fine is the second-largest criminal fine for a single drug. U.S. District Court Judge Samuel G Wilson of the Western District of Virginia imposed it given Abbott's guilty plea related to its unlawful promotion of Depakote for uses not approved by the FDA. Abbott had advertised Depakote to be used to control behavioral disturbances for patients with dementia and schizophrenia, without FDA approval. In addition, Abbott marketed Depakote for other psychiatric conditions in adults, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug withdrawal and psychiatric conditions in children, including conduct disorders, attention deficit disorder and autism. For this, Abbott has also been put on a five-year term of probation.

Tax avoidance

Abbotts Laboratories has been reported to use tax avoidance strategies. In 2011, two Irish subsidiaries of Abbott Laboratories made a profit of € 1.8 billion and € 1.1 billion respectively, but paid no tax. This is possible due to the Double Irish arrangement. While the directors of the company are all US-based, the first one is a direct subsidiary of an Abbott company in Switzerland which has no staff and has its registered office in Bermuda. It is considered as a "non-resident Irish entity incorporated in Bermuda" and therefore is exempted of taxes in both US and Irish jurisdiction.

See also

• List of biotechnology companies
• List of Illinois companies
• List of pharmaceutical companies

External links

• abbott.com Official website
• FreeStyle Navigator continuous blood glucose monitor
• Abbott Labs global health care and medical research
• Abbott/GE deal for core lab diagnostics business
• Abbott terminates deal with GE
• Abbott Hellas
• NIH Won't Intervene in AIDS Drug Pricing Issue, The Washington Post, August 4, 2004
• Abbott Laboratories timeline Abbott: A History of Medical Innovation
• CELL-DYN Hematology Analyzer Abbott Laboratories – Validate Region
• 2007 annual report win
• Abbott Laboratories Analysis on Wikinvest
• Abbott Acquired STARLIMS Laboratory Information Systems
• AbbVie.com