Over the last four quarters, the medical devices and diagnostics devices has actually grown to be a larger division that drugs in terms of sales.

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The suburban Chicago drug and medical product giant is splitting into a medical products business that will be called AbbVie, and trade under a new ticker symbol, ABBV, while the other company will retain the Abbott name and largely be focused on medical products including devices, diagnostics and nutritional products.

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The genetic revolution in biology is set to produce a steady flow of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices to help meet the demand, while a prosperous economy will let people spend lavishly.

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That conference (its full title is Capillary Based Microfluidics for Bioanalysis), which focuses on low cost diagnostics and medical devices is in Boston, US. The annual Boring event was originally set up as a joke in 2010.

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"We expect to improve lives by getting these out there, and that's huge, " says Dr Rodriguez, who founded Daktari Diagnostics in 2008 to market this and other medical devices.

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