Genentech is selling off a small piece of its Oceanside, CA, campus to Gilead Sciences. The deal involves two buildings and 55 employees, all of whom will keep their jobs, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. That must be a relief to the Genentech folks, who well know that parent company Roche is in the middle of a cost-cutting push.
According to the Union-Tribune, Gilead will pick up a facility where about 30 scientists work on processes for producing experimental drugs. The other building is a manufacturing plant where 25 employees turn out batches of drugs for clinical trials. Gilead plans to use its new facilities to make batches of an experimental cancer drug--that work is currently outsourced to a contract manufacturer--and to develop a production process for another in-development therapy.
The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Gilead said in a statement it expects the transfer to close during the third quarter.
Genentech says the sale isn't the beginning of a wholesale unloading of Oceanside property. "Genentech is totally committed to Oceanside," spokeswoman Robin Snyder told the newspaper. "We want to be really clear about that."
- see the Gilead release
- get the Union-Tribune story