Abbott Laboratories on Wednesday reported lower-than-expected medical device sales for the fourth quarter as COVID-19 curbs in China and supply-chain issues hit its international operations.
The company also flagged that medical devices sales would remain soft in the first quarter, mirroring similar comments a day earlier from rival Johnson & Johnson, which cited China’s COVID-19 outbreak as the reason for the weakness.
Abbott’s medical device sales came in at $3.75 billion in the quarter, missing analysts’ average estimate of $3.84 billion.
The company’s overall profit was better than expected, underpinned by strong demand for its diagnostics business and glucose monitoring device FreeStyle Libre….