Abbott (ABT) Stent Slowdown, Bad For Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) And Boston Scientific (BSX)

Health and Healthcare

Published: December 4, 2007 6:28 pm

Abbott Labs (ABT) which just launched a new stent product, Xience V, has laid off 1,200 people because of slowness in the stent market. Stranger than fiction. According to MarketWatch, Abbott says it expects to "take a 25-30% market share in 2008." But, of course, it looks like they miscalculated by employing all of those people in the first place.

No matter how wrong-headed that Abbott seems, it is bad news for the two incumbents in the stent business, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Boston Scientific (BSX). BSX is already struggling with falling operating income and a tremendous debt load.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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