Abbott India

Foundation and early history

In 1888 at the age of 30, Wallace Abbott , an 1885 graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the Abbott Alkaloidal Company in Ravenswood, Chicago. 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 , which he formed into tiny "dosimetric granules". This approach was successful since it produced more consistent and effective dosages for patients. In 1922, the company moved from Ravenswood to North Chicago, Illinois.

International expansion

Abbott's first international affiliate was in London in 1907; the company later added an affiliate in Montreal, Canada. Abbott India Ltd was originally incorporated on August 22, 1944, as Boots Pure Drug Company Ltd. The company name was changed to The Boots Company Ltd on November 1, 1971, and to Boots Pharmaceuticals Ltd on January 1, 1991. On October 31, 1995, the name was changed to Knoll Pharmaceuticals Ltd and on July 1, 2002, to their present name Abbott India Ltd.I 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. In 1962 Abbott entered into a joint venture with Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, to manufacture radio-pharmaceuticals. In 1964, it merged with Ross Laboratories, making Ross a wholly owned subsidiary of Abbott, and Richard Ross gained a seat on Abbott's board of directors until his retirement in 1983. The acquisition of Ross brought Similac under the Abbott umbrella. In the years following the acquisition, Pedialyte and Ensure were introduced as nutritional products by Ross Laboratories while under Abbott's leadership.In 1965, Abbott's expansion in Europe continued with offices in Italy and France.

According to Harvard professor Lester Grinspoon and Peter Hedblom, "In 1966 Abbott Laboratories sold the equivalent of two million doses of methamphetamine in powder form to a Long Island criminal dealer".

21st century

In 2001, the company acquired Knoll, the pharmaceutical division of BASF. In 2002, it divested the Selsun Blue brand to Chattem. Later in 2002, it sold Clear Eyes and Murine to Prestige Brands. In 2004, it acquired TheraSense, a diabetes-care company, which it merged with its MediSense division to become Abbott Diabetes Care. In 2006, Abbott assisted Boston Scientific in its purchase of Guidant Corporation purchasing the vascular device division of Guidant.In 2007, Abbott acquired Kos Pharmaceuticals for $3.7 billion in cash. At the time of acquisition, Kos marketed Niaspan, which raises levels of "good", or HDL, cholesterol and Advicor, a Niaspan combination drug for patients with multiple lipid disorders.

In January 2007, the company agreed to sell its in vitro diagnostics and Point-of-Care diagnostics divisions to General Electric for more than $8 billion, to be integrated into the GE Healthcare business unit. The transaction was approved by the boards of directors of Abbott and GE and was targeted to close in the first half of 2007. However, on 11 July 2007, Abbott announced that it had terminated its agreement with GE because the parties could not agree on the terms of the deal.On 8 September 2007, the company completed the sale of the UK manufacturing plant at Queenborough to Aesica Pharmaceuticals, a private equity-owned UK manufacturer.In November 2007, Abbott announced that Ross Products would be renamed Abbott Nutrition.On 26 February 2009, the company completed its acquisition of Advanced Medical Optics based in Santa Ana, California. It sold this business to Johnson & Johnson in February 2017. In 2009, Abbott opened a satellite research and development facility at Research Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.In February 2010, Abbott completed its $6.2 billion acquisition of the pharmaceuticals unit of Solvay S.A. This provided Abbott with a large complementary portfolio of pharmaceutical products and also expanded its presence in key emerging markets.On 22 March 2010, the company completed its acquisition of a Hollywood, Florida-based laboratory information management system company STARLIMS. Under the terms of the deal, Abbott acquired the company for $14 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $123 million. On 21 May 2010, Abbott said it would buy Piramal Healthcare Ltd.'s Healthcare Solutions unit for $2.2 billion, thus becoming the biggest drug company in India.

Spin-offs

In 2004, Abbott spun off its hospital products division into a new 14,000 employee company, Hospira. Hospira was later acquired by Pfizer in 2015.In October 2011, Abbott planned to separate into two companies, one for research-based pharmaceuticals and the other for medical devices, generic drugs sold internationally, and diagnostics, with the latter retaining the Abbott name. Abbott Nutrition, whose products include Similac, Pedialyte, Glucerna, and Ensure, also retained the Abbott name. In March 2012, the company announced that the spun-off research-based pharmaceuticals company would be named AbbVie. In preparation for the reorganization, Abbott made severe budget cuts and took a $478 million charge in Q3-2012 to pay for the restructuring. The separation was effective as of 1 January 2013 and AbbVie was officially listed in the New York Stock Exchange on 2 January 2013.

Further developments

On 16 May 2014, it was announced that Abbott would acquire the holding company Kalo Pharma Internacional S.L. for $2.9 billion in order to secure the 73% it held of Chilean pharmaceutical company, CFR Pharmaceuticals, which the company said would more than double its branded generic drug portfolio.In December 2014, the company acquired Russian pharmaceutical manufacturer Veropharm in a deal worth $410 million, which included three manufacturing facilities. Abbott, which already employed 1,400 people in Russia, said it planned to set up a manufacturing presence in the country when the deal closed.In September 2015, the company announced it had completed its acquisition of Tendyne Holdings, Inc., a private medical device company focused on developing minimally invasive mitral valve replacement therapies. Tendyne was acquired for a total transaction value of $250 million. In January 2020, the Tendyne Mitral Valve became the world's first commercially available solution for Mitral Valve Replacement Technology. Abbott obtained CE Mark for the device which now makes it possible to implant it in Europe outside of a clinical setting. The US clinical study for federal approval is still ongoing.In February 2016, the company announced it would acquire Alere for $5.8 billion. In January 2017, Abbott announced it would acquire St. Jude Medical for $25 billion . On 3 October 2017, the company closed the Alere acquisition making the surviving entity the market leader player in the $7 billion point-of-care diagnostic space within the broader $50 billion in-vitro diagnostics market with this takeover. With the acquisition of Alere, the company also obtained the subsidiary Arriva Medical, which is the largest mail-order diabetic supplier. Arriva Medical announced business closure after Abbott acquisition effective 31 December 2017.In 2017, the FDA approved Abbott's FreeStyle Libre glucose monitoring system, which reads glucose levels through a self-applied sensor without finger pricks.In August 2018, Reuters reported that Abbott Laboratories was among the top five companies for branded generic drugs in Russia.

In November 2018, Abbott received United States FDA clearance for FreeStyle LibreLink, a glucose reader smartphone app.In January 2019 purchased Cephea Valve Technologies, Inc. which is developing a less-invasive replacement heart valve for people with mitral valve disease.In March 2020, Abbott received emergency use authorization from the US FDA for a SARS-CoV-2 test during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tester is small , and produces results within 13 minutes. Detroit received these tests on April 1, 2020. Also in March, the firm received EUA for a molecular COVID-19 test that runs on its m2000 RealTime lab-based platform. In April 2020, itt received EUA from the FDA for its third COVID-19 test, an antibody test that helps detect the IgG antibody to SARS-CoV-2 using the company's ARCHITECT laboratory instruments. In May 2020, it received EUA from the FDA for another lab-based COVID-19 antibody test that helps detect the IgG antibody to SARS-CoV-2 using the company's Alinity i system. Also in May, it received EUA from the FDA for a molecular COVID-19 test for use on the company's Alinity molecular laboratory instrument.In August 2020, Abbott received EUA from the FDA for its credit-card-sized $5, 15-minute, portable COVID-19 antigen test, BinaxNOW, compatible with the NAVICA mobile app.In October 2020, Abbott received EUA from the FDA for its lab-based COVID-19 IgM antibody blood test.

In December 2020, its rapid antigen BinaxNOW COVID-19 test received EUA from the FDA for home use.Forbes reported in January 2021 that the firm had delivered more than 400 million COVID-19 tests, 300 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.Today, Abbott operates in over 160 countries.In September 2021 Abbott acquired Walk Vascular, LLC.

Acquisition history