Roche, the parent company of biotech giant Genentech, is seeking a buyer for one of the world’s largest biotech manufacturing facilities.
The Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker will sell the 427,000-square-foot facility or close it by 2029, North Bay Business Journal report. Roche declined to comment on the listing price, cost savings from the decision or whether the move was to offset losses, according to the outlet.
Genentech’s 800-person facility at 1000 New Horizons Way cost $250 million to build and came online in 2000. Roche acquired South San Francisco-based Genentech in 2009. The New Horizons facility produces some of Genentech’s revolutionary cancer drugs, such as Herceptin and Avastin, and more recently, arthritis and Covid-19 drug Actemra.
Roche plans to keep the 800 employees working at the New Horizons plant and move drug production there to a newer facility, the outlet reported. Genentech employs more than 13,000 people in its operations and Roche has more than 100,000 people worldwide.
Since the facility first opened more than two decades ago, the area around Genentech’s Vacaville facility has grown into a biotechnology manufacturing hub.Cancer treatment company Agenus purchased a 120-acre site in Vacaville in 2021, according to vacaville reporter. Polaris Pharmaceuticals and Mettler-Toledo Rainin both opened plants there last year.
Since the work-from-home revolution began, there have been waves of office leasing in the Bay Area. In the fall, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said he wanted biotech companies to move in to fill the technology gap in the city’s office market.
A Chicago-based developer recently scrapped plans for a 14-story life sciences tower in Emeryville, concerned about the industry’s cooling needs.
–– Kate Hinsher
