ABBOTT QUARTERLY NET UP AS IT ENDS DISTRIBUTION DEAL

Abbott Laboratories Inc. on Wednesday said quarterly profit rose 3.2 percent on improved margins, as it exited a distribution agreement to sell lower-margin drugs. The shedding of sales from products made by German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim helped boost gross margins by about 500 basis points versus the first quarter of 2005, even as overall sales fell, Abbott said.

Herald News Daily (http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-00178055.html)