Roche to move out of Palo Alto

Palo Alto may have to say goodbye to as many as 3,000 jobs. According to the San Francisco Business Times, Roche is planning to move its inflammation business from Palo Alto to Nutley, NJ and its virology ops--also at Palo Alto--to South San Francisco. The company will also move U.S. pharmaceutical commercial operations from its New Jersey site to South San Francisco.

"Roche is not disclosing the exact number of jobs that would shift between Palo Alto, South San Francisco and New Jersey. This much, however, is sure: South San Francisco will gain hundreds of jobs, New Jersey will lose hundreds and the Palo Alto operations that employed 3,000 people before Roche took control likely will be shuttered," notes the Business Times.

South San Francisco is the home of 8,000 Genentech employees. Roche, of course, is attempting to purchase one of the world's largest biotechs, though Genentech has rejected its offer as too low [1]. Unfortunately for Palo Alto, Roche's reorganization plans will take place whether or not the Genentech deal goes through.

- read the article [2] for more

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