Global Citizenship

Our Priorities > Innovating for the Future A Collaborative Approach

At our manufacturing plant in Wiesbaden, Germany, Abbott employees package test kits used in Abbott’s Architect diagnostic system. These industry-leading immunochemistry test kits include assays to assess ovarian cancer, vitamin deficiencies and more.

Research and Development Collaborations

Abbott believes that science is most effectively practiced through global collaboration. The important health care breakthroughs of the future will more frequently result from collaborative R&D agreements and from partnerships among companies, academics and non-governmental organizations.

Examples of Abbott’s R&D collaborations include:

• Abbott’s molecular diagnostics business offers a broad range of technologies and expertise to a host of collaborative partnerships with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, biological and entrepreneurial companies pursuing the promise of personalized medicine. Abbott Molecular develops comprehensive companion diagnostic strategies through contributions from our team of biologists, chemists and engineers, plus dedicated resources from experts in health economics, outcomes research, legal, medical affairs, clinical, regulatory affairs and marketing. One result of this work is our expansive line of Vysis DNA FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) probes, which are used to detect chromosomal abnormalities that can help physicians more accurately determine which medicines will likely perform the best with certain patient populations. For example, in early 2012, we announced collaboration with Merck to evaluate the use of a FISH-based companion test to aid in the development of a Merck investigational cancer therapy.
• In early 2012, we announced a partnership with the University of North Texas Science Center – one of the world’s leading forensics institutions – to evaluate our PLEX-ID instrument for use in analyzing human remains to support missing persons and human trafficking investigations. Currently intended for non-diagnostic use, PLEX-ID is the only high-throughput technology that offers rapid and broad identification of bacteria, viruses, fungi and certain parasites, and also provides information on drug resistance, virulence and strain type. The system also can be deployed for human identification testing with assays that target mitochondrial DNA.
• In 2011, Abbott Nutrition and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign established the first interdisciplinary nutrition and research center to study the connections between nutrition on learning and memory across the lifespan. This collaboration builds on a partnership between Abbott and the university that has grown over the last 20 years. Key to the partnership is an annual research challenge; in its inaugural year more than $12 million was allocated to support research projects involving nutrition, the brain and cognition and elevating nutrition’s role in learning and memory through interdisciplinary research. Studies will be conducted in several project categories, including interventional, correlational, model and tool development and core facilities.
• Our established pharmaceutical products business has teamed with ChemRar, a Russian research and development group, to develop new and more convenient formulations of existing Abbott pharmaceutical products to improve the health outcomes for patients and enhance patient compliance.
• Abbott recently entered into a collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc. using our RealTime Cytomegalovirus (CMV) test to help assess the effectiveness of a new vaccine in development. CMV is a herpes virus that affects half of all adults by age 40 and is the most common viral infection in transplant recipients. While most people who are infected with CMV have no signs or symptoms, the virus can cause severe complications for people with weakened immune systems, such as patients undergoing stem cell or organ transplants. Astellas is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials on ASP0113, an investigational vaccine designed to prevent CMV reactivation in transplant recipients. Our RealTime CMV test is being used to monitor the amount of virus in infected patients. Approved for use in the European Union, the Abbott RealTime CMV test performed on our m2000 instrument system is currently intended for investigational use only in the United States.

Note: All data in the Global Citizenship section reflects activities prior to the separation of Abbott and AbbVie on January 1, 2013.