Replies to post #76008 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Quiz: ABT recently increased its dividend for the 37th consecutive year (#msg-35753218). Name a company in the drug business who has an even longer streak of consecutive years with a dividend increase.

[DewDiligence]

ABT was down 5% today (a big move for a Big Pharma) because of the shortfall in 1Q09 Humira sales ($1.02B) relative to 4Q08 ($1.35B). The Humira drop-off was entirely in the US, where quarter-over-quarter sales declined from $751M to $410M. Ex-US, Humira sales increased quarter-over-quarter from $600M to $614M.

The market evidently isn’t buying ABT’s explanation that much of the QoQ decline in US Humira sales was due to inventory destocking. Yet the company’s guidance for full-year growth in worldwide Humira sales is still 15-20% (down from 25%), and that ain’t bad.

[DewDiligence]

BSX’s 1Q09 market share in drug-eluting stents:

US
Taxus 27%
Promus* 23%
===
50%

Ex-Us
44%

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Boston-Scientific-Announces-prnews-14977987.html

*Promus is ABT’s Xience stent combined with BSX’s delivery system; BSX sells Promus pursuant to its divestiture of Guidant’s vascular business to ABT in order to satisfy anti-trust considerations.