October 24, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Biotech Amgen said this week that it will lay off 274 employees at its Washington locations starting Dec. 31 as it begins its pull out from the state, according to a company spokeswoman.
The Thousand Oaks, Calif. firm announced earlier this summer that it will be undergoing a massive company-wide reorganization that includes exiting both its Washington facilities in Seattle and Bothell. The company will eventually lay off, retire or relocate 2,400 of its 2,900 jobs.
“We’ve projected that we will have left the site by the end of 2015,” said Carol Pawlak, a spokeswoman for Amgen, in a statement.
Up until now, Amgen was the largest biotech located in the region, with 600 employees in the Puget Sound area alone.
