J&J Eliminates More R&D Jobs

Johnson & Johnson is consolidating its West Coast pharmaceutical operations as part of an overall realignment of its drug business that began earlier this year.

The Fremont, Calif., research facility of J&J's biopharmaceuticals subsidiary, Scios, will be closed. Research programs that had been under way at the Fremont facility will be shifted to J&J's Pharmaceutical Research & Development site in La Jolla, Calif., and to the Mountain View, Calif., campus of another J&J subsidiary, Alza. The moves will result in the loss of about 500 jobs across Scios and Alza.

Earlier this year, J&J said it would close its Raritan, N.J., drug discovery unit, shedding 280 positions at the site (C&EN, Feb. 27, page 6). Roughly 100 jobs will be added at the company's Spring House, Pa., research site.