Abbott Laboratories reported stronger-than-expected quarterly sales, helped by growth of its Humira arthritis drug and sales of low-cost generics in emerging markets.
But shares of Abbott fell 1.3 per cent, hurt by the company's forecast that pricing pressures and other factors will lead to slightly lower second-quarter sales of vascular products compared with the first quarter.
The category, comprised mainly of heart stents, had first-quarter sales of $845 million.
Coronary stents, used to prop open heart arteries that have been cleared of plaque, have been a main revenue driver for the company in the past few years, along with Humira.
The suburban Chicago-based company earned $864 million, or 55 cents per share, in the first quarter, compared with $1 billion, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding special items, Abbott earnings rose 12 per cent to 91 cents per share. Analysts on average expected 90 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Global revenue rose 17.4 percent to $9.04 billion, in part because of Abbott's recent purchase of the generics business of India's Piramal Healthcare. Wall Street was expecting $8.83 billion.
Revenue got a 1.3 per cent boost from the weaker dollar, which raises the value of sales in overseas markets.
Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelsen said the weaker dollar was largely responsible for the surprisingly strong sales - a factor that has also bolstered first-quarter results for Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
Sales of Humira, the company's biggest product, rose 18 per cent to $1.65 billion, a bit higher than most analysts expected.
Combined sales of TriCor and a similar newer treatment for triglycerides called Trilipix rose 28 per cent to $372 million. Sales of Niaspan, used to raise "good" HDL cholesterol, rose almost 11 per cent to $226 million.
"The TriCor franchise and Humira in particular outperformed relative to expectations," Biegelsen said.
Reuters