ABT
#Yes, thanks for the question.
Yes, I will tell you what, Absorb has become very much a niche product that's for sure.
And I would have wished for it to be a lot bigger than that.
But XIENCE remains best-in-class stent, that is still true.
Do we need a bioabsorbable coated stent.
I'll tell you I think the bigger issue is I think we need an even more deliverable stent.
The issue right now with physicians is deliverability and I think that's been one of the hallmarks of Boston's SYNERGY stent is the deliverability.
So I think the issue is more the deliverability than the coating.
And we will launch early next year Sierra, our next generation of XIENCE which will address that.
So that's what I think is our single most important focus right now.
Do I think long-term there's still improvements and performance improvements and so forth to make in stents, whether it's coating or material or deliverability, etc.
.
The warning letter doesn't have to be lifted; the FDA has the ability, if it chooses to, to license it if they are satisfied with remediation actions and so forth.
They always have that ability.
So it's not dependent on particular formal lifting of warning letter.
At the same time the FDA always has the right to decide what it wants to do.
And I'd say with regard to expectations at this point, we've said second half or year-end and I think that's probably ---+ for right now, at least as modeling and planning purposes go, probably a fine assumption.
I can't be more specific than that because I can't read their minds and don't want to forecast them and put them in a tough spot.
So I would say as far as modeling goes, model second half somewhere and year-end, but I don't know that I can give you anything more precise than that.
Yes.
Well, I think that depends on a whole lot of things including the businesses.
I think it depends on what's happening with global markets, etc.
That's always our goal.
We are always ---+ our goal ---+ we always start every year with the notion that we are going to grow profits double-digits.
And to do that you've got to a fundamental revenue growth, as you know.
And as we look at the mix of the business I think the observation you make is correct.
I'd love it if everything grew like Neuromod but it doesn't.
And there's some of these businesses that I'd say are much more mature, like CRM and even the stent business, much more mature.
The good news about those businesses is they are extremely profitable and they generate high cash flow.
So, in the mix of our portfolio that's positive, that's a good thing.
On the other hand, if you are maintaining a growth profile you've got a have a lean toward growth in the mix.
And we've got a pretty good lean toward growth.
I'd say of late the one that's got my attention from a longer-term perspective is nutrition, particularly internationally, and what I've seen there as a slowing.
Now I think that business longer-term or at least on a stable basis for now looks like it's going to be a low- to mid-single-digit business, call that 3% to 5%, something like that, 3% to 5%.
But that's a mix.
There are some countries that are 1% or 2%.
There are some countries in geographies that are double-digits.
The global volume growth in that business for infant formula, for example, tends to be 3% to 3.5%.
And the biggest change in the growth has been price.
And not that the price has come down, it just isn't going to go up much.
And I think that that's perhaps indicative of some maturing in some of those markets.
We are looking at that pretty closely right now, so as I forecast it interestingly enough it's also very profitable and a high cash generator.
And as I've talked about Nutrition in the past, in the mix of Abbott Laboratories, it's been one of the biggest cash generators in the Company for a long time.
I used to refer to it as the bank as it funded a lot of M&A.
So it's a very healthy business that way.
I think our questions right now are assessing the shift of market tone.
China for example is actually much more stable than the last 12 to 18 months.
I like what I'm seeing in China right now.
We still have the government regulation kicking in and it's impacted competitors.
There's a lot of reaction to the shrinkage of the number of SKUs in the market and so forth, and we have talked about that.
But as far as what we are seeing in 2017 here, we are performing according to our expectations.
I think the comps obviously get better here in the second half.
We will see.
So as I look forward, yes, it is our goal to be a healthy grower, to be able to generate that double-digit bottom-line growth.
I think that we've got to continually look at the mix, as you suggest, how many growers we've got.
As you observe, the growth rate of something like Neuromod will come down simply because it gets bigger in the base.
But it's actual raw dollar growth I don't see changing for quite a while.
So I think that's a plus and I think we are seeing improved growth in other areas.
So, I know there's a lot of ins and outs there, but at the end of the day we are always looking to build our Company, grow the Company, expand the Company, gain market share for the Company.
And the acquisitions of St.
Jude and Alere were part of building that core leadership base in the businesses that we are in to continue to drive that growth and the goal hasn't changed.
We'll take one more question, operator.
I think, to your last question, you will see sequential improvement from Q3 to Q4.
There are a lot of items that <UNK> talked about in the acceleration including new products and just the momentum of our businesses.
So I think that's a fair assessment.
With respect to your question on gross margin.
Our operational improvements and gross margin underlying continue to be there that we've talked about before.
You do get a little noise around the mix of FX and what that does and that's just simply math there.
Nothing has changed about our aspirations to continue to expand our gross margins on an underlying basis probably 50 to 75 basis points on that, <UNK>.
Okay, thanks.
No, I will tell you in the grand scheme of things with Diabetes Care, I don't think we need to have a pump.
But I think there's a strategic ---+ what would I call it ---+ change happening or that will happen over the next couple of years in the market, particularly for type 1 diabetics and for multiple daily injectors, which could be type 2s that are insulin-dependent.
What's interesting about Bigfoot is they are taking a different approach to the ease and the integration of what those multiple daily injectors have as solutions to manage their disease separate from pumping.
And it's a fairly clever service and approach that I think will create not just an alternative that makes the management of the disease or management of someone's insulin easier, but I think the value proposition of it is going to be pretty compelling.
And I think that will change the competitive dynamics in that realm that is pumping.
The penetration of pumps or pumping relative to the market size of multiple daily injectors is really quite small.
You'd say, wow, there's a lot of potential for further penetration.
The question is the value proposition.
A lot of times the reason it hasn't penetrated further is it might be too costly or viewed that way.
And I think what Bigfoot is doing, if I could comment on it from a distance, because I've never had a conversation with them myself, is they've come up with a pretty unique value proposition that not only is good from the standpoint of the patient or even the payer, but also just in general in the cost of managing the disease for a diabetic.
I think it's a pretty interesting use of technology to make it simpler, easier and affordable.
Now I probably sound like a brochure for them.
I just think their approach is interesting.
And in our case the technology that is Libre is a component of that and a fairly compelling piece of it that expands the use of Libre beyond what Libre can even do today.
And then beyond that there's other expansion and improvements to Libre that aren't just in that segment.
But I think the sensor technology and the nature of the way Libre works has a lot of applications beyond how it's used today.
And the Bigfoot approach is just one of those and I think it's a pretty unique, compelling idea that puts Libre as a part of the competition in that pumping or multiple daily injector world ---+ that it's a great opportunity for us and I think it further enhances the management of the disease for patients.
Thank you, operator, and thank you for all of your questions.
And that concludes Abbott's conference call.
A replay of this call will be available after 11 AM Central Time today on Abbott's Investor Relations website at AbbottIntestor.com.
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The audio replay will be available until 4 PM Central Time on August 2.
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