March 27, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Up to 500 Amgen employees based at the company’s Thousand Oaks facilities will be relocated to a new site in Tampa, Fla. and other sites, or be terminated, over the next 18 months as part of a new restructuring plan announced last week.
The Pacific Coast Business Times reported that Amgen made its reorganization announcement on March 22. The company employs approximately 5,500 people in Thousand Oaks. In addition to the new facility in Florida, other sites where employees could be relocated include research and development offices in Cambridge, Mass. and South San Francisco. The majority of those 500 employees will be laid off, or their roles will be changed in some manner, the company said. Kristen Davis, a spokesperson for Amgen, confirmed for the Business Times the number of employees who will be affected by the reorganization.
When the job relocations begin, Davis told the Business Times that about 50 Amgen employees based in Thousand Oaks will be shifted to Florida. Those employees will primarily handle responsibilities associated with information systems, human resources and finances.
“We are bringing these services together because we believe the center can improve collaboration and share best practices,” Davis told the Business Times.
Amgen anticipates opening the new Florida Capability Center in October. It is expected to employ about 450 people when it is fully operational. In a statement issued last week, David W. Meline, Amgen’s chief financial officer, said the “services and activities” taking place at the new Tampa facility will support the company’s mission of serving patients through the development of new therapeutics. Amgen’s pipeline is focused on six primary therapeutic areas: oncology/hematology, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, bone health, nephrology and neuroscience.
About 100 employees will be shifted to San Francisco or Cambridge, Mass. By shifting employees to these facilities, Davis said the company will be better able to “align and advance functional capabilities” and increase innovation capabilities at each of those sites.
While those numbers only account for 150 out of the 500 employees told about their jobs that may not mean the remaining 350 employees will be terminated. Davis told the Thousand Oaks Acorn that the number of people laid off will be “significantly different” than the number that received the March 22 notices. She said some employees could see their roles with the company change and shifted to a different job. While they will still be with the company, their old job will be eliminated. For those employees who will be terminated, Davis said the company will offer a comprehensive severance package.
