Two reminders in two days: It’s lean times in the prescription drug business, but broader health-care sales are doing OK. Abbott released its third-quarter earnings today. Pharmaceutical sales fell 1.6% compared with the year-earlier period. Higher sales of the arthritis drug Humira weren’t enough to make up for generic competition for the seizure drug Depakote and the effects of foreign exchange. But sales in its nutritional business (which includes Similac baby formula and Ensure drinks) were up 10% and sales in its vascular business (which includes the Xience stent) were up 4.7%. The company’s diagnostics business was

down just a hair (off 0.3%) due largely to foreign exchange. Overall, the company’s reported sales were up 3.5%. (Here’s a full earnings story .) Just yesterday, J&J released its own third-quarter earnings , which showed that decent performance by several of the company’s business lines softened a sharp fall in pharmaceutical sales. No wonder big drug makers like Pfizer are looking to emulate J&J and Abbott, trying to transform themselves into companies less dependent on blockbuster drugs. Image: iStockphoto

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J&J, Abbott Earnings: For Pharma, It’s Good to Be Diversified