Abbott Laboratories (United States)

ABBOTT LABORATORIES is one of the top health-care manufacturers in the United States with a global reputation in leading pharmaceutical drugs, advanced medical devices, and cardiovascular/spinal care. Abott provides products across a wide spectrum of the health field, including cancer diagnosis and treatment. Among the company's more recent offerings is a newly developed, urine-based prostate cancer screening test that will soon (as of June 2007) be brought to market by Abbott Laboratories.

Currently, prostate cancer screening uses monitoring of PSA levels which provide a 70 to 75 percent false positive results, meaning that men go through unnecessary biopsies. In contrast, the new urine-based test was studied on over 500 patients and gave a 21 percent false positive result. This major improvement in the positive predictive value may promise the reduction of unnecessary biopsies. According to a spokesman of MacroArray Technologies, the developer of the test, the PCADM-1 urine test looks for a gene that is “over-expressed only in malignant prostate tissue.” The company envisions that the test will be used in conjunction with the PSA test for verification purposes, and as time goes by, may reduce the unnecessary biopsy tests that currently occur.

Abbott has more than 65,000 employees, including 5,000 scientists, in over 130 countries. According to the American Cancer Society, for more than 10 years, Abbott Laboratories has supported the American Cancer Society's mission. Abbott employees make donations through the Abbott Charity Choice Campaign. The American Cancer Society is a featured choice in the campaign, along with the United Way and the American Heart Association. In 2005, for the first time, Abbott matched employee donations to the American Cancer Society 50 cents to the dollar.

At the company's headquarters, Abbott shares the American Cancer Society message of prevention, service, and hope through its employee campaign kickoffs. Abbott has also sponsored several American Cancer Society projects and events and employees proudly support Relay For Life® every year.

Since the 1990s there have been some drugs developed and marketed by Abbott that years later are suspected to have dangerous or toxic side-effects. This can result in class-action lawsuits against the company. One example of controversy is Humira, a drug used in regulating the inflammatory reactions associated with autoimmune diseases. A Mayo Clinic study revealed the risk for several types of cancer to be among a number of serious adverse Humira side-ef-fects. Researchers found that patients taking the drug face increased risk for developing the following cancers: breast, gastrointestinal, skin, and lung tumors. [Page 2]Humira has also been shown to increase the potential risk for developing lymphoma, or cancers that affect the lymphatic system.

Abbott addresses these issues with careful and prominent communication with doctors to ensure the drug is prescribed with the potential side-effects in mind. As with most of the big pharmaceutical companies, there are benefits and drawbacks to the drugs introduced to the general public, even with the screening of the Food and Drug Administration.