By Val Brickates Kennedy, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Abbott Laboratories reported a sharply lower third-quarter profit early Wednesday, due largely to hefty costs associated with its acquisition of Solvay SA’s pharmaceutical unit as well as the market withdrawal of its diet drug Meridia.
Shares of Abbott were down 1% in afternoon trading.
For the third quarter, Abbott (ABT 47.84, -0.10, -0.21%) posted net income of $891 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with $1.48 billion or 95 cents a share for the same quarter in 2009.
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Excluding various items, the company would have reported adjusted earnings of $1.05 a share versus 92 cents a share. This year’s quarter included a charge of 33 cents a share for Abbott’s acquisition of the Solvay unit, and a charge of 10 cents a share related to the discontinuation of Meridia.
The 2010 quarter also contained a charge of 5 cents a share for the recent recall of its baby formula Similac, and the market withdrawal of Meridia.
Sales for the quarter rose 12% to $8.68 billion.
Earlier this year, Abbott acquired the Solvay unit for roughly $6 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research estimated Abbott would post earnings of $1.04 a share, on revenue of $8.95 billion.
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Abbott also tweaked its financial forecast, raising the lower end of its previously issued guidance. The health-care product company now sees 2010 adjusted earnings of $4.16 to $4.18 a share.
Earlier this month, U.S. regulators asked Abbott to pull Meridia from the market, citing concerns that it could trigger a heart attack or stroke in certain users. The drug also has been taken off the European, Canadian and Australian markets.
Known generically as sibutramine, Meridia was approved for the U.S. market in 1997.
In late September, Abbott recalled certain lots of Similac over concerns that the widely used baby formula had been contaminated by beetles.
Val Brickates Kennedy is a reporter for MarketWatch in Boston.
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