Abbott Labs: Another Lilly

I was very pleased today to hear President Trump mention Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) during his news conference.  Another company that he said among the many captains of industry he referred to was Abbott Labs.  Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is in fact one of the most mentioned companies by Trump in his nearly daily news conferences.

Just as perhaps millions of Americans may one day be able to thank Abbott Laboratories (ABT) for their pioneering technology in the field of COVID 19 testing, I too have a debt to pay them.

You see, back more than 20 years ago when I started buying the Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) product, Zyprexa, I was encouraged to stay with a medicine that Abbott Laboratories (ABT) had developed called Depakote.  Apparently, the two medicines have a symbiotic effect, as it is called in biology, meaning neither one alone is as effective by itself as they are together--where they equal more than the sum of their parts.

When I decided to start blogging for a maker of medicine I was buying, I chose to single out Eli Lilly & Co.'s (LLY) Zyprexa, at first, mainly because it is the more powerful of the two drugs.  And later, when I created my own blog, I had already been blogging for years in exchange for an unofficial deal to receive medicine through the doctor.  Anyone who goes back and reads the advocacy and ideas that I produced would be dishonest with oneself if it wasn't agreed that Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) got a good deal out of it.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) sold it's Depakote at a much lower cost than Eli Lilly sold it's Zyprexa.  I did get a $50 discount through a company rebate that Abbott sponsored for a while.  But, it really paid off more to focus on Lilly's better arrangement.

About 8 years ago, Abbott Labs spun off it's pharmaceutical wing into a separate company that became known as AbbVie Inc. (ABBV).  Abbott Laboratories (ABT) remained as mainly a medical device company from which it already did a lot of business.  So, my Depakote medicine then fell under the jurisdiction of AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) to which I started to give all my thanks when I mentioned it.  However, with Abbott Labs in the big news, I think it is necessary to remind all my readers where Depakote started.

Paul Wharton

Special thanks to Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) for inventing the fuels of my mind