Abbott announces share repurchase programme

Abbott has announced its board of directors has authorised a $5 billion (2.87 billion pounds) share repurchase programme.

The acquisition of the corporation’s common stock may be made from time to time, depending on market circumstances. Regulatory conditions are also to be taken into consideration, the company explains.

Members of Abbott’s management will be responsible for determining the timing and amounts of any purchases.

The share repurchase authorisation has no time limit and may be halted at any time, the company explains.

In other news from the firm, it recently announced that two-year data from 30 participants in its Absorb clinical trial showed its bioabsorbable drug eluting stent treated coronary artery disease and was absorbed into the walls of arteries treated with it within two years.

Left behind were blood vessels which appeared to function and move in a similar fashion to unstented arteries.

“Now you see it, now you don’t – for the first time, we have data in patients showing that Abbott’s bioabsorbable drug eluting stent does its job treating diseased coronary arteries and that it is absorbed by two years,” comments principal investigator in the trial Dr John Ormiston.