Amgen biotech expansion keys on Europe

As part of an expansion push that emphasizes the European market, the biopharmaceutical company Amgen announced plans last week to invest more than $1 billion in new process development, bulk manufacturing, and packaging facilities in Cork, Ireland. The company is also adding facilities in Puerto Rico to produce the anemia drugs Epogen and Aranesp. Amgen says it will expand its existing research and development operations in Cambridge, Mass.; San Francisco; Seattle; and Cambridge, England, and it plans to build a new development center in Uxbridge, England. Meanwhile, Amgen has moved its European headquarters from Lucerne to Zug, Switzerland. Amgen says it hopes to employ 1,100 workers at the new Cork plant by 2010.