Abbott Laboratories Inc reported higher-than-expected first-quarter profit and sales on Wednesday on surging sales of its Freestyle Libre glucose monitoring device and as more of its heart devices were used in surgical procedures.
Sales of the glucose monitor device, approved in 2017 and which helps people track blood sugar levels without having to prick their fingers, jumped 70.2 percent in the first quarter. Total diabetes care sales rose 34.4 percent to $566 million, ahead of consensus expectations of $519 million, according to BMO.
Total cardiovascular and neuromodulation sales rose 0.2 percent to $2.33 billion, helped by sales of its MitraClip device for minimally invasive treatment of a leaky heart valve. Net sales rose to $7.54 billion from $7.39 billion. Analysts had expected $7.47 billion.