Eye-care company Alcon Inc. (ACL) is laying off about 260 from its 15,000-strong global work force as it deals with fresh generic competition and economically induced slowdown in the U.S. market for eye drugs, a spokesman said Thursday.

Alcon released fourth-quarter earnings late Wednesday that topped Wall Street expectations, helping shares rise 7.9% to $89.55 in recent trading, but guided toward slower-than-usual growth in 2009 due to the tough economic climate.

The company also announced a "staffing reduction" that would trigger a $21 million pretax charge, mainly in the first quarter, and annualized savings of about $40 million starting in the second quarter.

Doug MacHatton, vice president of investor relations and strategic corporate communications, confirmed the number of employees that are affected. About half of them are in Fort Worth, Texas, where the Hunenberg, Switzerland, company's U.S. operations are based.

The cuts are "spread across the company and around the world" and target positions that aren't considered "commercially critical," MacHatton said.

Alcon is dealing this year with generic competition for TobraDex, which is an antibiotic/anti-inflammatory eye drug. It still has patent protection, but privately held Bausch & Lomb was able to launch a generic version of the drug on Jan. 1 under the terms of a legal deal between the two companies.

TobraDex has U.S. sales of about $180 million a year, of which two-thirds are for a suspension, or liquid, version for which there is currently generic competition. Alcon has also launched a generic to try and keep some of the cheaper product sales in-house.

About 2% to 3% of Alcon's global sales are exposed, MacHatton said.

That isn't much, but it comes at a time when the company is dealing with economic impacts to parts of its business. The company has felt some economic pressure in the U.S. market for glaucoma drugs, for example.

Guidance for 2009 calls for sales growth, excluding the impact of currency rates and acquisitions, in a mid-single-digits range. That is below growth of around 8% to 10% that an analyst on Thursday's earnings call noted was a long-term goal.

Alcon officials didn't give guidance for 2010, but indicated that 2009 will have some unique pressures and that returning to higher growth rates is a realistic expectation.

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