Plenty of companies are reporting earnings this Wednesday morning, one of which is Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT).

The health-care giant reported third-quarter earnings of 95 cents per share, far better than last year's 69 cents per share. Taking items out of the equation, Abbott would have earned 92 cents per share, which is two cents better than the consensus estimate. Quarterly revenue matched the consensus estimate for $7.76 billion.

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) is planning to cut 5,500 jobs over the next few years and reorganize into five business units. The company is looking to reduce costs and accelerate how long it takes new drugs to get to market, especially as its top performers see their patents expire. This translates to a workforce reduction of close to 14% – to 35,000. This measure doesn't include new positions in emerging markets with high potential and Japan.

The company hopes to cut as much as possible through attrition and retirements – and it would not indicate how many other positions would have to be cut.

Eli Lilly's goal is to slash its annual cost by $1 billion during this restructuring. The new business units will be: cancer, diabetes, established markets, emerging markets and Elanco, which is its animal health business. This is a change from the existing functional model, which separates U.S. and global marketing for each drug in the company's portfolio. Through the new structure, Lilly says, drug development and marketing will be tied more closely.

Pharmaceutical company Merck (NYSE: MRK), whose colleagues include Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), issued its Q2 numbers earlier in the week. Quite frankly, I found them to be boring. Of course, maybe boring isn't too bad these days, right? It's a lot better than an exciting ride on a profit-decline express.

Well, actually, Merck did see a decline in its bottom-line profit, but it wasn't an outrageously awful drop or anything like that. Merck made an adjusted 83 cents per share compared to an adjusted 86 cents per share in the comparable period. Three less pennies isn't the worst thing in the world on a relative basis. Plus, revenues increased 3% if you exclude currency effects (including them gives a decrease of 3%).

Bright and early this morning, Roche Group (OTC: RHHB) announced first-half earnings and upped its annual earnings goal, thanks to impressive sales of Tamiflu. Roche's first-half profit (it only reports earnings twice) dropped 29% to $3.8 billion as the company was hit by costs related to its purchase of Genentech. That said, Roche upped its earnings guidance and forecast double-digit core earnings growth in both 2009 and 2010 -- the earlier forecast called for earnings to stay at 2008 levels.

Similar to consulting firm Accenture (NYSE: ACN), international results were hurt by foreign exchange effects, which offset nearly 4% operational growth overseas. Half of Johnson & Johnson's total revenues for the quarter came from outside the United States. Shares, which are down year-to-date and are underperforming the S&P 500, were up fractionally today in mid-day trading.

The verdict leaves Abbott stock in a tenuous position. The healthcare sector has been in the crosshairs lately as concerns about costly medical reform swirl, with the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals (XPH) ETF down slightly year-to-date, compared to the nearly 5% gain on the S&P 500. Abbott Labs has underperformed both comparables, and is down 10% year-to-date.