Same song, dozenth verse: Abbott Laboratories became the latest Big Pharma to announce another round of layoffs. This time, the company plans to slice 1,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its global work force, over the next three and a half years. But the cuts will largely come in its diagnostics unit, which makes tests for heart and metabolic diseases, and infections.
Abbott, of course, makes most of its dough in drugs, but diagnostics made up $1 billion of its $7.3 billion in second-quarter sales. The unit had grown 17 percent over the same quarter last year. But Abbott wants to boost efficiency there anyway. "We're really being proactive with this initiative to strengthen the business and improve its profitability and competitiveness," an Abbott spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.
As part of the streamlining plan, the company will move some manufacturing to plants in Ireland and Germany, to be closer to European customers and eliminate redundancies.
These layoffs come on top of 1,200 job cuts the company announced last December. Those affected a stent-making facility in Galway, Ireland, which the company planned to shut down, and another facility in Temecula, California.
- read the WSJ story