As many biopharma companies employ an increasingly remote workforce, Amgen has parted ways with a building that was part of its campus in Thousand Oaks, California.
The Latigo Group, a real estate investment and development firm, bought the building at 2150 Hillcrest Drive for more than $25 million, CoStar reports. The building previously served as a welcome center for the company's headquarters, according to local reports from last year. At the time, Amgen proposed a mixed commercial and residential development for the site.
Meanwhile, the real estate sale follows Amgen’s restructuring effort unveiled early last year. Last February, the company said it'd cut 500 jobs, primarily in the U.S. sales force.
At the time, Amgen said the changes were aimed at enabling it to make investments to better engage patients, plus spend on upcoming drug launches and adopt digital marketing tools. Chief Financial Officer Peter Griffiths noted that the digital efforts would lead to a decrease in expenses.
Amgen is not the first to sell office space as the industry moves to adapt to remote workers and pandemic practices.
In October, GlaxoSmithKline revealed a move from both its North Carolina and Philadelphia offices in favor of smaller spaces in the same regions. The new spaces would feature fewer individual cubicles and more open areas to foster informal collaboration, GSK said. The changes adjust the physical office space to adapt with remote work flexibility.
Last April, Pfizer weighted the sale of its 340-acre Collegeville, Pennsylvania, campus. The company said it was considering the sale as it searched for a more “modern and flexible” workplace. The decision was driven by the company’s “evolving flexible work model” and aimed to provide employees with the flexibility to work remotely while maintaining the ability to “connect and collaborate on site,” Pfizer told Fierce Pharma last April.
Amgen representatives didn't respond to a request for comment on the California real estate sale.