Roche closing manufacturing facility in Massachusetts

Roche’s manufacturing operations are taking another haircut. This time, a plant in Massachusetts that makes cancer and blood screening tests will be closed and 75 jobs lost.

The facility is slated to close by the end of the year, Todd Siesky, vice president at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, said today, confirming a report in The Boston Globe. 

In an email Siesky said the decision comes as Roche prepares to consolidate its expanding operations in the Boston area into a single hub location. 

“This decision included a review of Roche’s manufacturing infrastructure to ensure the company has the correct production capacity and capability in place to support the Roche portfolio. As a result of these changes, the company plans to cease all manufacturing  at its Marlborough location by the fourth quarter of this year and transfer activities to other Roche sites in the US and Europe,” he said

RELATED: Roche cutting 1,200 jobs in major shift in producing drugs

Roche has been looking for ways to streamline its manufacturing operations across divisions for several years to cut costs while investing in areas that are seeing growth. In late 2015, Roche announced it would close four plants and lay off 1,200 people as it moved toward more biologics and new specialized small-molecule drugs that require less capacity.  

RELATED: Roche to sell U.S. plant to Patheon, saving about 200 jobs

Roche said it would try to sell the facilities and did find buyers for two of them. It sold an API plant in Florence, South Carolina, to CDMO Patheon for a nominal amount in a deal that saved about 200 jobs. Greek contract manufacturer Famar struck a deal to take a plant in Leganes, Spain.