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Abbott Laboratories doubles local investments, while the changing tariff policy of President Donald Trump continues to cause cheeky in hand on the world economy.
The company, whose offers extend from medical devices to pharmaceutical products, said in its first quarter of results on Wednesday that it planned to invest $ 500 million in manufacturing and research and development in Illinois and Dallas.
The expansion of Illinois will perform on the company’s headquarters campus in Abbott Park, according to the spokesperson for the company Maddie King. The medical giant also has offices in Willis Tower.
Abbott provides that these investments are online by the end of the year. He plans to hire around 200 people in Illinois and 100 in Dallas in the coming years to support expansion, according to the company.
Abbott has 89 manufacturing sites worldwide, with the highest concentration of sites, 35 years old, in the United States
Over the past five years, Abbott has invested nearly $ 5 billion in manufacturing and indoor equipment, plus $ 10.7 billion in additional research and development.
Abbott’s president and chief executive officer Robert Ford said in the appeal that investments are linked to his American transfusion diagnostic activity, which is responsible for screening for American blood.
King did not answer questions about how Trump’s changing tariff policies relate to his American expansion.
Last week, Trump ordered China’s rates by 145%. He also imposed 25% prices on steel and aluminum; 25% of prices on Mexico and Canada products not subject to the American free trade agreement; 25% tariffs on automotive imports, as well as on parts, which are running next month, and a reference rate of 10% on almost all imports. Trump also explores prices on medicine and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Prices are taxes imposed on goods imported from a foreign country. They are often used by political leaders to report their disdain for the policies of another country – or as a tool to promote national industries and production.
Ford said that during the investor call, prices will affect all of its manufacturing sites around the world, but the company is “well placed to implement attenuations to help manage the impact of prices”.
“We estimate the price impact in 2025 as a few hundred million dollars. This is a semi -annual impact because I don’t see any impact in the first quarter. And then we are starting to see the impact in the third quarter,” said Ford.
“One thing that we have learned of prices is that they do not disappear. So, whatever it is, it remains, and it remains for a while. I look at the prices that went in place in 2017. They are still there. So we have to think about how you mitigate it more sustainable in the long term,” he said. “So yes, you can use an assessment, and you can create an inventory – and we will probably make a game. But if your whole strategy is to create an inventory, you guess what will happen in 2026, or each time this inventory is exhausted. We are therefore looking at the manufacturing network and optimizing it.”
