Genentech, one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world, announced that it will be shuttering its Vacaville plant, located about 30 minutes outside Sacramento, which has existed since 1998.
Genentech’s parent company, the Swiss health care giant Roche, is viewing for a acquireer for the Vacaville plant but will close down the plant by 2029 whether or not it finds a acquireer, according to Reuters.
“It’s always disappointing when a company closes, but we’re hopeful Genentech will find a company that will be able to utilize the facility at its existing site,” Don Burrus, Vacaville’s economic development director, informed the North Bay Business Journal. The Business Journal reported that Roche is planning on keeping the Vacaville plant’s 800 employees.
The Vacaville plant was built in 1998 and cost $250 million to complete. At the time, the state-of-the-art facility’s core product was a breast cancer treatment.
Roche declared earlier this year that it expected lower profits due to falling demand for its COVID-19 products, yet another example of the struggles affecting Northern California’s biotech industest. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Johnson & Johnson and Twist Bioscience recently announced layoffs. The trconclude is part of a larger reckoning affecting the tech industest writ large.
While Genentech appears to be pulling back in Northern California, it is ramping up production in Southern California. The company announced in February that it was investing $450 million into its plant in the San Diego County city of Oceanside.
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