Abbott recently said that its Diagnostics business grew sales 43 percent year over year.

For the three months ended Sept. 30, 2018 the Abbott Park, Illinois-based firm reported overall revenues of $7.66 billion, up 12 percent on a reported basis from $6.83 billion a year ago. Organically, revenues grew 8 percent. The company beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $7.65 billion.

Organic sales growth excluded prior year results for the Abbott Medical Optics and St. Jude Medical vascular closure businesses, which were divested during the Q1 2017; the current and prior year results for Rapid Diagnostics, which Abbott acquired from Alere in October 2017; and the impact of foreign exchange.

Abbott reported that its Diagnostics business sales rose to $1.82 billion year over year from $1.28 billion. Within Diagnostics, core laboratory Q3 sales grew 6 percent to $1.09 billion from $1.03 billion; molecular revenues rose 5 percent to $121 million from $115 million; point-of-care sales grew 4 percent to $136 million from $131 million; and rapid diagnostics sales were $481 million, led by growth in cardiometabolic testing.

Molecular diagnostics sales were led by growth in infectious disease testing, a core area of focus, Abbott said, and point-of-care diagnostic product sales were driven in part by strong international growth of the firm's i-Stat handheld system.

The firm said that among its Q3 highlights, it received CE marking for its high-sensitivity troponin I test, which is indicated to help predict chances of a heart attack potentially years in advance of the event, enabling its sale in Europe.

Abbott CEO Miles White said in a statement that the firm "achieved another quarter of strong growth and our new product pipeline continues to be highly productive. In spite of increasing currency headwinds, we're well-positioned to achieve the upper end of our initial full-year guidance."