Abbott Laboratories, a medical device manufacturer based in Abbott Park, Illinois, has laid off approximately 450 employees at its stent manufacturing plant near San Diego, California. According to a news article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the plant will retain approximately 2,000 employees in their current roles.

The Temecula-based plant manufactured both interventional cardiology devices and stents. The latest layoffs follow a company-wide reduction in support and manufacturing positions for last-gen products that have suffered from reduced demand.

Last week, Abbott cut 200 jobs at a catheter and stent company based in Ireland. However, the Union-Tribune article states that the company’s Temecula plant still plays a critical role in Abbott’s future. In particular, the Temecula plant manufacturers the company’s Absorb stent.

The Abbott Absorb stent is made of a specialized bioabsorbable material that will dissolve in the body once it has completed its role. It doesn not require surgical removal, and it does not leave behind artifacts in a patient’s cardiovascular system that could be harmful in the future.

Since Abbott recently spun out its pharmaceutical division into AbbVie, the company’s cardiovascular devices form a significant portion of its core product line. In the last quarter, the company’s vascular division reported an 8.1 percent decrease in revenue. This was due to a 24.9 percent decrease in stent sales in the United States.

References

www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/25/abbott-lays-off-450-at-Temecula-plant

For more news stories on layoffs in the medical device industry, go to:

www.qmed.com/news/abbott-cuts-200-jobs-irish-manufacturing-facility

www.qmed.com/news/smith-nephew-ceo-downplays-device-tax-recent-layoffs

www.qmed.com/news/boston-sci-layoffs-may-be-bigger-previously-disclosed