Life sciences company Abbott Laboratories Inc. (NYSE:ABT) is planning to hand out 1,000 pink slips over the next three and a half years to cut costs for its diagnostics business.

The North Chicago-based company, which employed about 828 people in Ottawa as of the beginning of this summer, said it hopes to see about $150 million in annual pre-tax savings after the cuts. The planned layoffs represent about 1.5 per cent of Abbott's global workforce.

Abbott told the media that it was "looking ahead from a position of strength" and making the cuts to "address excess capacity and improve efficiency."

The restructuring plan will see the company shutting down a facility in South Pasadena, Calif., eliminating jobs at its Lake County headquarters, and moving production to its plants in Ireland and Germany between now and 2011, as part of a drive to focus on international sales of its diagnostics products.

The company said it will take pre-tax charges of about $370 million over the next few years, with approximately $150 million of that amount to hit its books in the second half of 2008. Abbott's third quarter alone will see the impact of $140 million of the charges.