Amgen Inc. laid off 23 workers in Colorado last week as part of the biotechnology giant’s efforts to reduce costs.
Amgen’s sites in Longmont and Boulder fared well in the round of cuts compared with the firm’s Thousand Oaks, Calif., headquarters and offices in Rhode Island, which bore the brunt of the 1,500 layoffs.
In addition to the cuts, about 700 Amgen workers nationwide took a “voluntary transition” package, said Amgen Colorado spokeswoman Debbi Ford. She would not disclose how many workers in Colorado left voluntarily.
Amgen’s campuses in Colorado employed a total of 1,250 as of this past summer. Employees in the state are focused on manufacturing the anemia drug Epogen, quality control and production of potential drugs in clinical trials. Ford said the company would have new head-count numbers at the beginning of 2008.
Employees received a “competitive” combination of cash severance, continuance of health insurance and career- transition services, Ford said.
Colorado’s 380 bioscience companies are capable of absorbing the jobs lost at Amgen, said Denise Brown, executive director of the Colorado Bioscience Association. According to the association, the sector employs 16,000 in the state.
“Fortunately, 23 is not a large number – only 1 percent of the total layoffs – so we are taking this as a good sign for Amgen’s future plans for Colorado,” Brown said. “The Amgen employees will be welcomed with open arms by other regional companies – they are well- trained and highly regarded.”
In August, Amgen said it would cut 14 percent of its workforce in a restructuring effort following lower-than-expected sales of its leading anemia drug Aranesp. That drug is not made in Colorado.
Kimberly S. Johnson: 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
