HOLLY SPRINGS – Amgen has cut 300 workers, a spokesperson for the organization confirmed to WRAL TechWire. Reports of job cuts at the biotechnology firm, which is investing $550 million in a facility in Holly Springs that it expects to become a “permanent home,” first surfaced on Sunday by Endpoints News and FierceBiotech.
“Amgen recently made organizational changes, mainly in our commercial team, that have unfortunately led to the displacement of approximately 300 team members based in the U.S.,” the spokesperson told WRAL TechWire. “We made these changes to better manage against industry headwinds so that we can continue to deliver value for our patients, staff and shareholders. These decisions are never easy, and we are committed to helping those impacted with transitional support.”
But the firm’s manufacturing plant in Holly Springs in on schedule, Dana Martinez, the corporate affairs site lead for Amgen told WRAL TechWire on Thursday.
“Construction of the Holly Springs plant remains on schedule with plans to be operational by 2025,” Martinez said. “This manufacturing plant is a key component of Amgen’s investment strategy to build manufacturing capacity for volume-driven growth and is expected to employ more than 350 team members.”
Report: Job cuts top 100,000 in January – most are not in high tech
What’s happening
In December, the company closed a purchase of another firm for more than $26 billion. Amgen also reported quarterly earnings earlier this week.
The spokesperson did not respond to a request to clarify whether the workforce reduction would impact workers in North Carolina.
Amgen is not hiring for any open positions in the Triangle, one of only two companies WRAL TechWire tracks in the weekly WRAL TechWire Jobs Report not to be hiring at this time.
At the new facility in Holly Springs, the company has previously committed to offer its estimated 350 workers an average salary of $119,510. The plant site sits on approximately 100 acres on the northwest side of Holly Springs, just south of U.S. 1.
Nearby, an additional life science facility from Crescent Communities known as THE YIELD is currently under construction.
Amgen expects new Holly Springs plant to be ‘a permanent home’
