What Are the Risks for Abbott Labs Investors?

In this video, Motley Fool health care bureau chief Brenton Flynn previews the Fool's premium report on Abbott Labs by outlining some risks facing the company. First, all of its business segments operate in highly competitive environments. Second, Abbott's international businesses are vulnerable to currency fluctuations and economic downturns, such as we see now in Europe. These downturns reduce consumer demand for Abbott's nutritional products, for example. Lastly, many foreign countries have a single-payor system for health care, and these might force Abbott to take suboptimal payments for its products.