NEW YORK - Biotechnology company Amgen (IW 600/67) announced Tuesday that it will cut between 2,400 and 2,900 jobs and shutter two facilities in the United States in a reorganization to save money.
Amgen (AMGN) plans to close facilities in Washington and Colorado as it cuts 12% to 15% of its workforce, with most of the job losses coming in the U.S.
Amgen will consolidate some staff into headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and expand in biotechnology hubs in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., the company said.
The moves will also shrink the company's facilities "footprint" by 23%, Amgen said.
"From a position of strength, we have announced today restructuring initiatives that will allow us to reallocate resources to invest in our upcoming launches and drive growth," said Amgen chief executive Robert Bradway.
Bradway said that communities near the shuttered facilities have been "very supportive" and that the decision to close the sites were taken with "great reluctance."
The company is in talks with other groups about potential future use of the facilities, he said.
The job cuts were announced as Amgen reported second-quarter earnings of $1.5 billion on revenues of $5.2 billion.
In the year-ago period, Amgen notched earnings of $1.3 billion on revenues of $4.7 billion.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
