and acquisition volume impacts, plus price impacts) are provided for each segment. The translation impact and total sales change are also provided for each segment.

 

Health Care Business (20.7% of consolidated sales):

  

The Health Care segment serves markets that include medical, surgical, pharmaceutical, dental and orthodontic, health information systems and personal care. Products provided to these markets include medical and surgical supplies, skin health and infection prevention products, pharmaceuticals, drug delivery systems, dental and orthodontic products, health information systems, microbiology products, and closures for disposable diapers.

 

In 2005, Health Care reported local-currency sales growth of 2.9%. 3M’s core medical and dental businesses and health information systems businesses experienced local-currency sales growth of approximately 6%. The strength of these businesses helped overcome the sales growth challenges of the pharmaceutical and personal care businesses. Personal care, which is 3M’s diaper tape business, has experienced significant raw material price increases in some product lines over the past year, and 3M has elected to drive profits at the expense of volume in this business, which has the lowest margins in the Health Care segment. Sales of certain products within 3M’s pharmaceuticals business, primarily comprised of prescription drugs in inhalation, women’s health, and cardiovascular, are declining due to price pressure in Europe and decreased demand for some of these older products. 3M continues to generate growth in its Aldara™ pharmaceutical product, which accounts for approximately 6% of total Health Care sales. Aldara sales grew nearly 10% in 2005, and growth outside the U.S. was particularly strong. However, fourth quarter 2005 year-over-year local-currency sales declined for the first time since the product was launched in 1997. Health Care sales for 3M’s Aldara pharmaceutical product for the actinic keratois (a pre-cancerous skin condition) indication has and is expected to continue to fall short of expectations 3M had at the time of FDA approval and 3M is currently reassessing Aldara’s total market potential. Health Care continued to focus on operational efficiency, which helped drive an 8.2% increase in operating income in 2005. The Company’s agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., announced in early 2005 and described further below, is currently the focus of the Company’s efforts to develop its immune response modifier technology while the Company reviews its other development efforts.

 

3M received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Aldara™ (imiquimod) Cream, 5%, in 1996 for the treatment of external genital warts, in March 2004 for the treatment of certain types of actinic keratosis (a pre-cancerous skin condition), and in July 2004 for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma (a common form of non-melanoma skin cancer). The patent and related rights for the imiquimod molecule are important to the Health Care Business. The original patent on the imiquimod molecule expired in August 2004, but the patent term extension runs through August 2009, with an