Healthcare · Profile from Healthcare Research Companion
Abbott Laboratories
The Chicago-area healthcare conglomerate that began in 1888 as a doctor's pill business and, after spinning off its research pharma arm as AbbVie in 2013, rebuilt itself around medical devices, diagnostics, nutrition and branded generics. Its defining products are the FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor, which made sensor-based diabetes care a mass market, and the BinaxNOW and ID NOW COVID-19 tests. Its defining failures are the 2022 shutdown of its Sturgis, Michigan, infant-formula plant, which caused a national shortage, the litigation over preterm formula and necrotising enterocolitis that followed, and a 2025 Libre 3 sensor recall. In 2026 it closed its largest acquisition since St. Jude Medical, the ~$21bn purchase of Exact Sciences.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1888, Chicago (Ravenswood), as the Abbott Alkaloidal Company; renamed Abbott Laboratories in 1915
- Founders
- Dr. Wallace Calvin Abbott (1857–1921), a physician and pharmacy owner
- Headquarters
- Abbott Park, Illinois (Lake County)
- Ownership / structure
- Public company, NYSE: ABT (listed since 1929, verify); long record of annual dividend increases (a "dividend king", reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Robert B. Ford, chairman and CEO (CEO since March 2020, chairman since December 2021); Philip Boudreau, CFO (verify)
- Segment and buyer
- Four segments: Medical Devices (diabetes care, cardiac rhythm, electrophysiology, heart failure, structural heart, vascular, neuromodulation); Diagnostics (core lab, molecular, point of care, rapid tests, and from 2026 Exact Sciences' cancer screening and precision oncology); Nutrition (Similac, Ensure, Glucerna, PediaSure); Established Pharmaceuticals (branded generics outside the US). Buyers are hospitals, labs, pharmacies, consumers and national health systems
- Scale
- 2025 sales ~$44.3bn (US ~$17.1bn, international ~$27.2bn; Abbott Q3 2026 release); FreeStyle Libre ~$7.5–8bn (2025, sources differ, verify); ~114,000 employees (verify); Exact Sciences (2025 sales ~$3.25bn) added ~$968m of Cancer Diagnostics sales in Q3 2026 alone
- Capital / market cap
- Investment-grade; ~$20bn of notes issued to fund Exact Sciences (reported); market cap roughly $200–230bn in 2025–26 (verify)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding (1888); first licensed HIV blood test (1985); Knoll and Humira (2001); TheraSense (2004); AbbVie spin-off (2013); FreeStyle Libre (2014 Europe, 2017 US); St. Jude Medical and Alere (2017); BinaxNOW (2020); Sturgis formula recall and consent decree (2022); NEC verdicts (2024); Libre 3 sensor recall (2025); Exact Sciences (announced 2025, closed 2026)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1888
Founding Dosimetric Granules
Founding
2013
AbbVie Spin Off
Spin-off
2014
FreeStyle Libre Launch
Launch
2017
St Jude and Alere Acquisitions
Acquisition (two deals)
2020
BinaxNOW Covid Testing
Launch (emergency authorisation)
2022
Sturgis Infant Formula Recall
Recall / consent decree
2024
NEC Preterm Formula Litigation
Litigation
2025
Exact Sciences Acquisition
Acquisition