Abbott Laboratories has achieved strong performance during the year ended December 2008 on account of impressive sales growth of pharmaceutical products viz., Humira, Kaletra and Niaspan. The company's net earnings went up sharply by 35.3 per cent to US$4,881 million from $3,606 million in the previous year. Its worldwide sales increased by 13.9 per cent to $29,528 million from $25,914 million. With smart gain in profits, its diluted earnings per common share from continuing operations moved up to $3.03 from $2.31 in the previous year.

Miles D White, chairman and CEO, said, "2008 was another highly productive and successful year for Abbott. We significantly outperformed our original growth expectations for the year and added to our diverse portfolio with a significant number of major new product launches. The strategic actions we have taken and our ongoing business momentum position Abbott to deliver continued double-digit growth in 2009."

The company's worldwide pharmaceutical sales increased by 3.2 per cent to $16,708 million, of which US sales worked out to $8,497 million and international sales to $8.211 million. The nutritional sales increased only by 1.9 per cent to $4,924 million and its diagnostics sales increased by 13.2 per cent to $3,575 million. Worldwide vascular sales went up by 34.7 per cent to $2,241 million. Sales of nutritional in US increased by 5.6 per cent to 2,479 million and that of vascular increased by 39.6 per cent to $1,205 million in US.

The Worldwide sales of Humira increased by 47.6 per cent to $4,521 million. The sales of Humira in US increased by 36.6 per cent to $2,255 million and that in international market moved up by 60.4 per cent to $2,266 million. The sales of Kaletra increased by 11.2 per cent to $1,474 million despite fall in US sales by 4.7 per cent o $513 million. The Worldwide sales of Depakote also moved down by 13.4 per cent to $1,364 million and the same in US declined by 14.8 per cent $1,262 million.

The company confirms double-digit earnings-per-share growth outlook for 2009 of $3.65 to $3.70. The board of directors declared the quarterly common dividend of 36 cents per share. This marks the 340th consecutive dividend paid by Abbott since 1924.