Abbott is doubling down on the structural heart space as it aims to gain ground in valve replacements following the recent global exit of Boston Scientific.
CEO Robert Ford said sales of its Navitor transcatheter aortic valve replacement implant have doubled over the past two years—largely driven by increases in Europe and worldwide—and that the road ahead looks favorable.
While the largest players in the sector remain Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic, in late May Boston Scientific announced that it would pull its Acurate family of TAVR valves from the market, including versions recently approved in Europe, and that it would also halt its pursuits of FDA approval.
The move came following stumbles in a U.S. clinical study and discussions with international regulators, the company said. Acurate valves had been available in more than 50 countries, and Boston Scientific said they have been used to treat more than 80,000 patients.
“There's an opportunity here to accelerate growth internationally, with a competitor market exit,” Ford said on Abbott’s second-quarter earnings call with investors. “I know the team’s all over that, and with the upcoming CE mark that we have planned for Navitor to have a low and intermediate risk label expansion—it could come at a perfect time, to be quite honest with you.”
Abbott is also working to grow its reach stateside by doubling the size of its related sales force by the end of this year, compared to 2024.
“Right now we're in about 20% of the centers in the U.S., and the way to expand our position here is we’ve got to be in more centers. And the way to do that is you need more clinical people, you need more feet on the street,” Ford said. “We’re putting ourselves in the realm of being more competitive, in terms of access to sites.”
Abbott is also developing a new balloon-expandable TAVR implant, with first-in-human procedures completed late last year, that will sit alongside Navitor’s self-expandable approach.
“Once you commit yourself to developing next-generation, balloon-expandable TAVR, that also opens up a nice opportunity for us—even though that'll probably be more towards the end of this decade, in terms of a full launch,” he said.
Outside of TAVR, last quarter Abbott secured an FDA approval for its Tendyne mitral valve replacement implant as a complement to its MitraClip repair system. The company also announced it plans to develop a new cardiovascular device manufacturing facility in Georgia by 2028.
For Abbott’s second quarter, the company reported $11.14 billion in total sales, for 7.4% year-over-year growth. That includes $5.37 billion in medical device revenue, with $636 million coming from structural heart—both categories growing about 13%.
Diabetes care, meanwhile, accounted for $1.98 billion in sales, for a gain of more than 20%. Recently, Abbott has been lining up insulin pump partnerships for its upcoming dual-sensor wearable based on its FreeStyle Libre CGM platform, which will track both glucose and ketone levels.
“I think this is going to be a real, next-level, significant change in the CGM market, specifically for insulin intensive users,” Ford said. “Ketone monitoring helps prevent diabetic ketoacidosis.”
While Ford did not offer details on the new sensor’s timing, including for regulatory submissions, he did say that Abbott has already completed “approximately five different trials” to support an application. He added that it has been working with insulin pump developers to make sure the sensor works for people with diabetes as soon as it gets the green light.
Abbott also posted $2.17 billion in second-quarter sales for its diagnostics business, for a 0.8% gain when excluding COVID-19 related revenue, as well as $2.21 billion from its nutrition division, up 2.9%. The company’s ex-U.S. pharmaceuticals unit, meanwhile, brought in $1.38 billion, for 6.9% growth.
For the remainder of 2025, Abbott projected full-year organic sales growth, again excluding COVID tests, to land between 7.5% and 8%. The company also forecast about $200 million in costs due to new U.S. tariffs.