For the full calendar of 2024, Abbott recorded sales of $41.95 billion, following the launches last year of a new heart valve repair implant and FDA clearances for two over-the-counter blood sugar trackers, among other products.
The company’s medical device division alone grew 13.4% during the past 12 months, when accounting for foreign currency exchanges, to log $18.99 billion in revenue. Abbott’s core diagnostics business, meanwhile—excluding continuing declines in COVID-19 test sales—went up 5.2%, to collect $9.34 billion.
Those coronavirus tests amounted to $747 million in revenue for the year, less than half compared to a still-significant $1.59 billion in 2023. Elsewhere, in the field of rapid diagnostics, the company reported strong demand for its infectious disease tests covering the flu, strep throat and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
In medical devices, fourth-quarter sales were up 14%, to $5.05 billion—driven in part by the launch of TriClip, following its approval by the FDA for tricuspid valve repair in April 2024.
The long-awaited green light for the implant, based on Abbott’s top-selling MitraClip therapy, came on the heels of an approval for Edwards Lifesciences’ Evoque transcatheter replacement for the same valve, where leaks have been historically tricky to address due to its complex anatomy. Structural heart unit sales were up 22.6% for the quarter and 17% for 2024, totaling $609 million and $2.25 billion, respectively.
Last year also saw Abbott take steps forward with a new addition to its cardiac catalog, completing the first patient procedures with an upcoming balloon-expandable TAVR system for aortic stenosis.
Meanwhile, sales of continuous glucose monitors grew 22.8% during the quarter, reaching $1.8 billion, while the company’s broader diabetes care portfolio increased 19.7% over the course of the year, to $6.8 billion.
In June 2024, Abbott received a pair of clearances for its Libre Rio and Lingo CGM systems, both the company’s first to become available without a prescription. Based on its FreeStyle Libre system, the Libre Rio is aimed at adults with Type 2 diabetes who are not taking insulin, while the Lingo targets a more general health and wellness market. They’ll compete with Dexcom’s over-the-counter Stelo wearable, which debuted last August.
Elsewhere in the company, Abbott reported a 6.4% year-over-year gain for its nutrition business, with $8.41 billion in reported sales, and a 9.2% jump in its pharmaceuticals unit, for $5.19 billion.
For 2025, the company forecasted organic sales growth to land between 7.5% and 8.5%. Abbott’s stock price dipped in premarket trading, with first-quarter guidance falling below Wall Street estimates, but recovered and closed the gap within an hour of the market opening, to about $118 per share.