Abbott Laboratories 2012 Annual Report Download - page 49

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Abbott 2012 Annual Report
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Abbott Laboratories:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets
of Abbott Laboratories and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of
December 31, 2012, 2011, and 2010, and the related consolidated
statements of earnings, comprehensive income, shareholders’
investment, and cash flows for the years then ended. These financial
statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial
statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards of the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those
standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reason-
able assurance about whether the financial statements are free of
material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis,
evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles
used and significant estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe
that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, such consolidated financial statements present fairly,
in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as
of December 31, 2012, 2011, and 2010, and the results of its
operations and its cash flows for the years then ended, in conformity
with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States
of America.
As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements,
on January 1, 2013, the Company distributed all of the outstanding
shares of AbbVie Inc., which encompasses the Company’s
research-based pharmaceuticals business, to the Company’s share-
holders. As also discussed in Note 1, in 2011 the Company changed
the year end of its foreign subsidiaries from a November 30 fiscal year
end to a December 31 calendar year end.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the Company’s
internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2012,
based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of
the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 15, 2013
expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company’s internal control
over financial reporting.
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Chicago, Illinois
February 15, 2013
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Abbott Laboratories:
We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of Abbott
Laboratories and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31,
2012, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of
the Treadway Commission. The Company’s management is responsi-
ble for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and
for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial
reporting, included in the accompanying Management Report on
Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to
express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial
reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those
standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reason-
able assurance about whether effective internal control over financial
reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included
obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting,
assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluat-
ing the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based
on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we
considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit
provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process
designed by, or under the supervision of, the company’s principal
executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar
functions, and effected by the company’s board of directors, manage-
ment, and other personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding
the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial state-
ments for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial
reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the
maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly
reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company;
(2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as
necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and
expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with
authorizations of management and directors of the company; and
(3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detec-
tion of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s
assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial
reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper manage-
ment override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud
may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections
of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over finan-
cial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls
may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the
degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effec-
tive internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2012,
based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations
of the Treadway Commission.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consoli-
dated financial statements of the Company as of and for the year
ended December 31, 2012 and our report dated February 15, 2013
expresses an unqualified opinion on those financial statements and
includes an explanatory paragraph regarding the distribution of the
shares of AbbVie Inc. to the Company’s shareholders and the
Company’s change to the year end of its foreign subsidiaries.
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Chicago, Illinois
February 15, 2013
Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm