Ross Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories

Type	Public
Traded as	: ABT S&P 100 Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Health care
Founded	1888; 129 years ago (1888) (as Abbott Alkaloidal Company)
Founder	Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott
Headquarters	Lake Bluff, Illinois, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Miles D. White (Chairman and CEO)
Products	Branded generic drugs Medical devices Diagnostic assays Nutritional products
Revenue	US$20.853 billion (2016)
Operating income	US$3.185 billion (2016)
Net income	US$1.4 billion (2016)
Total assets	US$52.666 billion (2016)
Total equity	US$20.538 billion (2016)
Number of employees	75,000 (2016)
Website	www.abbott.com

Abbott Laboratories is an American worldwide health care company. It has 94,000 employees and operates in more than 150 countries. The company headquarters are in Lake Bluff, Illinois. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 to formulate known drugs; it eventually grew to also sell research-based drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and nutritional products. It split off the research-based pharmaceuticals into Abbvie in 2013. In 2015, revenues were $20.4 billion.

Abbott has a broad range of branded generic pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, and nutrition products. The company's in-vitro diagnostics business performs immunoassays and blood screening. Its medical tests and diagnostic instrument systems are used worldwide by hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, and physician offices to diagnose and monitor diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, cancer, heart failure and metabolic disorders, as well as assess other indicators of health. In 1985, the company developed the first HIV blood-screening test.

Abbott Point-of-Care manufactures diagnostic products for blood analysis to provide health care professionals diagnostics information at the point of patient care. Abbott also provides point-of-care cardiac assays to the emergency room.

In 1888 at the age of 30, Wallace Abbott (1857–1921), an 1885 graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the Abbott Alkaloidal Company. At the time, he was a practicing physician and owned a drug store. His innovation was the use of the active part of a medicinal plant, generally an alkaloid (morphine, quinine, strychnine and codeine), which he formed into tiny "dosimetric granules". This approach was successful since it produced more consistent and effective dosages for patients.

Abbott's first international affiliate was in London in 1907, and the company later added an affiliate in Montreal, Canada (Fact 21). Abbott started operations in Pakistan as a marketing affiliate in 1948; the company has steadily expanded to comprise a work force of over 1500 employees. Currently two manufacturing facilities located at Landhi and Korangi in Karachi continue to produce pharmaceutical products. Expansion continued in 1962 when Abbott entered into a joint venture with Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, to manufacture radio-pharmaceuticals. In 1964, it acquired Ross Laboratories, making Ross a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbott. In 1965, Abbott's expansion in Europe continued with offices in Italy and France. Abbott Laboratories has been present in India for over 100 years through its subsidiary Abbott India Limited and it is currently India's largest healthcare products company.