Severin Schwan, Roche CEO (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP Images)

Genen­tech slash­es near­ly 500 jobs in strate­gic shift to 'lo­cal health­care ecosys­tems.' Clin­i­cal spe­cial­ists make up the biggest group

Deep in­to the pan­dem­ic, the ex­ec­u­tives at Roche are ex­e­cut­ing an un­usu­al plan to lay off near­ly 500 work­ers at South San Fran­cis­co-based Genen­tech.

The huge Roche sub­sidiary hand­ed in their WARN no­tice to the state a few days ago, not­ing that 474 staffers were be­ing per­ma­nent­ly cut from the pay­roll.

A spokesper­son for the com­pa­ny told me via e-mail:

The ma­jor­i­ty of these roles are from our field or­ga­ni­za­tion and, though for­mal­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with our South San Fran­cis­co head­quar­ters, are ac­tu­al­ly lo­cat­ed through­out the Unit­ed States. These po­si­tion elim­i­na­tions are not re­lat­ed to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, the clin­i­cal tri­als for which Actem­ra is be­ing stud­ied in COVID-19 pneu­mo­nia, or any spe­cif­ic ther­a­peu­tic area.

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