Sales of MitraClip device increase in Q4
For the fourth quarter of 2015, Abbott’s worldwide medical device sales increased 0.7 percent on an operational basis, while its vascular products revenue decreased 0.5 percent.
The company said in a news release that sales of its MitraClip device to treat mitral regurgitation increased double digits worldwide. The FDA approved the MitraClip in October 2013. As of August 2015, more than 25,000 patients worldwide had received the MitraClip.
In October, Abbott presented results of the ABSORB III trial at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium in San Francisco. The study that found Abbott’s investigational Absorb everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold was noninferior to its Xience everolimus-eluting cobalt-chromium stent. The primary endpoint was target lesion failure, which researchers defined as cardiac death, target-vessel MI or ischemia-driven target-lesion revascularization.
The Absorb scaffold is not yet FDA-approved, but Abbott completed its submission for approval in late 2015. The Xience stent has been available in the U.S. since 2008.
Abbott’s fourth quarter worldwide sales increased 4.9 percent on an operational basis to $5.2 billion, while its full year sales increased $20.4 billion to $20.4 billion.
Abbott said it expects earnings per share in 2016 to be between $2.10 and $2.20 per share and between $1.55 and $1.65 on a GAAP basis.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.