Roche’s Genentech Unit to Cut 223 Jobs in US

Roche’s Genentech unit plans to cut 223 jobs from its South San Francisco, California headquarters by the end of the year. The company, which disclosed the staff reductions in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) posted by the State of California’s Employment Development Department, noted that the move comes after a review of its operations.

“We have been evaluating some of our operations to ensure we remain well-positioned to meet the needs of patients today and deliver on our pipeline of new medicines in the future,” Genentech said, adding “as a result of this process, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate some positions.”

The layoffs come as Roche looks to offset declining sales of Herceptin and MabThera/Rituxan, which are facing competition from biosimilar versions, with new products. The company reported last month that revenue from Herceptin was down 5 percent in Europe in the first half of 2018, with sales of MabThera/Rituxan dropping 9 percent.

Earlier this year, CEO Severin Schwan indicated that Roche is seeking greater efficiencies in nearly all parts of the company, without reducing the independence of its three R&D hubs of Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) and Chugai. At the time, the executive suggested that costs could be cut in manufacturing.