ABT’s diversified products segment (i.e. what will become the new Abbott when AbbVie is spun off) showed during 1Q12 why it will be a premiere beneficiary of The Global Demographic Tailwind. Some highlights from the quarter:
• 40% of nutritional-product sales came from emerging markets, where YOY growth exceeded 10%.
• 60% of “established products” (i.e. branded generics) sales came from the BRIC countries, where YoY growth was 17%.
• Sales of diagnostics in the BRIC countries grew 25% YoY.
• Sales of vascular products in the BRIC countries had double-digit YoY growth. (60% of ABT’s drug-eluting stent sales are ex-US.)
Humira had a pretty good quarter too: $1.93B (a $7.7B annualized rate), +19% YoY in constant currencies.
Due to the solid quarter, ABT raised its non-GAAP EPS guidance for 2012 by $0.05 to a range of $5.00-5.10.
“The efficient-market hypothesis may be
the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated
in any area of human knowledge!”