The Associated Press
August 21, 2008 - 5:12 p.m.

NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. - Drug and medical device maker Abbott Laboratories said Thursday it will cut 1,000 jobs as part of a multiyear effort to lower spending on its medical testing business.

Abbott said the plan will save the company US$150 million ahead of taxes, primarily by dint of. transferring manufacturing operations to Europe.

The North Chicago, Ill.-based company disclosed the cost-cutting plans in a regulatory filing Thursday.

Abbott’s diagnostic discord accounted for $3.2 billion, or 12 per cent, of aggregate revenue last year. The company sells a varied assortment of lineage and urine tests used to diagnose various diseases and medical provisions.

The company said the actions will cost $370 million before taxes, with about $150 a thousand thousand of that amount falling in the second moiety of 2008. Only about 100 jobs will be cut this year, according to a company spokeswoman Melissa Brotz, through all 1,000 jobs eliminated within four years.

As work of the restructuring plan, Abbott said it will close its Pasadena, Calif., manufacturing site and eradicate positions at sites in Santa Clara, Calif., and Lake Forest, Ill.

Brotz said Abbott is committed to its diagnostic business, which had sales growth of 16 by cent in the first half of the year.

“We’re being proactive here and are looking to be active this business stronger by addressing redundancies and excess capacity,” Brotz said.

Most of the operations will be transferred to factories in Ireland, Brotz said, adding that the company’s diagnostic business has been growing faster in Europe than in the U.S.

Abbott Laboratories shares fell 34 cents Thursday to $57.99.