Abbott Laboratories (ABT) cut about 175 U.S. pharmaceutical sales representative positions earlier in March while shifting resources in the business, a company spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

The Abbott Park, Ill., company has about 83,000 employees worldwide.

The cuts came shortly after Abbott closed its $6.2 billion acquisition of Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals, but are not related, said Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel.

Meantime, the cuts preceded Tuesday's news that the Food and Drug Administration requested more details for a proposed drug called Certriad, which is a combination cholesterol drug co-developed by Abbott and AstraZeneca PLC (AZN). Despite the FDA's "complete response letter" on Certriad, "there's no plans for any additional" sales-force cuts, Stoffel said.

Shares of Abbott recently traded up 0.3% to $52.68.

-By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-654-6728; jon.kamp@dowjones.com
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