REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsOct 18 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) said the market was overestimating the hit to sales of its glucose monitoring products from growing popularity of new diabetes drugs, adding the treatments could end up boosting sales of the medical device maker.
The company's shares have dropped 16% this year, mainly on concerns that new GLP-1 diabetes drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro could eat into the sales of its continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices.
Hurdles in health insurance reimbursement and pricing could, however, keep market growth for GLP-1 drugs limited to a small number of patients in the near term, Abbott CEO Robert Ford said on Wednesday.
Third-quarter sales of FreeStyle Libre, Abbott's CGM device used by diabetes patients, jumped 30.5% to $1.4 billion, lifting Abbott's shares 3% in morning trade.
The numbers helped Abbott's medical device sales that stood at $4.25 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $4.16 billion, according to LSEG data.
Persons:
Brendan McDermid, Nordisk's Ozempic, Eli Lilly's, Abbott, Robert Ford, Ford, Vijay Kumar, Pratik Jain, Leroy Leo, Anil D'Silva, Shounak Dasgupta, Shinjini
Organizations:
Abbott, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Abbott Laboratories, Nordisk's, Thomson
Locations:
New York City, U.S, GLP, Bengaluru