Friday, March 26, 2010

Roche cuts 500 jobs

Roche plans to eliminate 500 positions in New Jersey by the end of this month, related to last year's acquisition of Genentech Inc., and plans to cut another 100 jobs in the state by June.

The moves, detailed in a notice filed in late January with the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development and obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, are due to the Swiss drug maker "permanently shutting down or reducing in size certain operations" in Nutley and Clifton.

About a year ago, Roche paid $46.8 billion to acquire the 44% of Genentech Inc. that it didn't already own. Roche projected some job cuts would occur from merging its Nutley operations with those of Genentech in South San Francisco, as well as the planned phase out of manufacturing operations in Nutley.

Roche spokesman Alfred Wasilewski said the N.J. notice covers those moves, but it doesn't account for jobs added to the Nutley campus from the relocation of some research operations from a Roche facility in Palo Alto, Calif.

"During the same time period, as the Nutley campus is shifting in emphasis to becoming a major research and development hub for Roche, the company added approximately 200 positions in the sciences," he said.

Roche, which had 2009 revenue of about $45.9 billion, employs more than 80,000 people worldwide.

Source

No comments: