AGC Biologics lays off 85 from Longmont, Boulder sites

LONGMONT & BOULDER — AGC Biologics on Wednesday said it would shutter most of its Longmont operations and lay off 85 employees in Colorado in a second round of layoffs since May.

According to a WARN notice filed Wednesday with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, AGC Biologics will lay off 85 employees in Colorado and 10 in Washington state. The bulk of the layoffs, 68, will come out of the company’s Longmont site, while 17 will be laid off from the company’s Boulder site. And 10 employees will be let go from its Bothell, Washington, site. This is the second round of layoffs affecting Colorado operations this year. The first came in May, when 100 employees were laid off between the company’s Colorado and Seattle offices. This latest round is effective as of Nov 22.

In its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter, the company states that the move is in “an effort to protect the longevity of the organization” by restructuring and removing “certain operational lines” in Longmont.

“AGC will be separating employees from their employment on November 22, 2024. … The site will remain partially open to support the AGC Biologics site in Boulder, Colorado.”

In a prepared statement issued Wednesday by Nick McDonald, senior manager of global marketing and communications, the company stated:

“Our industry has seen fluctuation over the last 12-18 months as the global biopharmaceutical business environment has changed. This includes developers slowing their investment in R&D and timelines for advancing treatments into their next phase, which has had a negative impact on CDMOs and other manufacturers. 

“With that, AGC Biologics has evaluated our resources and made the difficult decision to idle most operations at one of our global sites, the AGC Biologics cell and gene therapy plant in Longmont, and restructure some U.S. and global support functions.  

“A decision that impacts team members like this is never taken lightly, and we are providing support to those affected. We are also actively working with customers impacted by this change.”

Officials from the Colorado BioScience Association reported they are actively working to help the displaced employees.

“Colorado is known as a leading location in the U.S. for life sciences talent. Colorado BioScience Association is working with AGC Biologics to help their employees find career continuity and new opportunities in our thriving life sciences ecosystem,” Elyse Blazevich, president and CEO of the association, said in a prepared statement. “Many companies are actively hiring and employees won’t find a better professional network than here in Colorado.”

Just last year, the company expanded its Longmont facility by adding 30,000 square feet of space to add cell and gene therapy manufacturing capacity. AGC opened the Longmont facility in 2021, buying out a former Novartis cell and gene therapy production plant. The plant focused on working on complex cell therapy and viral vector products and substances, according to its website. 

The company announced 100 layoffs in May at its Colorado and Seattle sites. The company’s statement at the time, was recorded on PharmaSource.com, stating:

“AGC Biologics continues to navigate the changing economies of our industry, and other external factors that have impacted our organization and many of our partners worldwide over the last year. To position ourselves for the future, we have reached an inflection point where we need to adjust business priorities, and right size and rebalance the resources of our organization. With these adjusted priorities, we have had to reduce positions at our Seattle and Colorado sites and some supporting global functional areas.”

Just this week, AGC Inc., (OTCMKTS: ASGLY) the parent company of AGC Biologics, announced that it would partner with Tokyo-based MEDINET to help grow the drug development operations in Japan by combining resources. 

According to a news release on its website, AGC Biologics announced, “AGC and MEDINET have agreed to exchange and train manufacturing and quality human resources from both companies and to complement MEDINET’s development and manufacturing capabilities with AGC Biologics’ global cell therapy sites. Initially, AGC will send talents to MEDINET to build knowledge of this business in Japan by supporting MEDINET’s CDMO operation, which has extensive experience in contracting with Japan based start-ups and academia, and to prepare for the launch of cell therapy CDMO services in Japan at the AGC Biologics’ Yokohama site, scheduled for 2026 (Part of the service will begin in 2025).”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comments from AGC Biologics, and from the Colorado BioScience Association.

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