View Full Version : Genzyme closes OKC Facility



metro
11-19-2010, 08:08 AM
Sad to hear, not a lot of employees though, but they were high paid employees. For those of you who don't know. Genzyme has close ties to Bill Canfield which is also the developer of The Hill and used Genzyme/Novazyme as his pedestal when pitching his bid for The Hill OCURA site. Saying all his scientists were from East Coast and needed this high end housing. After this, I DEFINITELY say he should NOT get an extention from OCURA, I voiced my concerns at the original meeting years ago as well as several others that this was a bad idea to base it off of as well as the design was not the best out of the options given.

Genzyme to close OKC facility
Journal Record
By April Wilkerson
Thursday, November 18, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY – Genzyme, the worldwide biotechnology corporation that acquired Oklahoma biotech success story Novazyme nearly a decade ago, has notified its 26 Oklahoma employees that their jobs are being eliminated.

Lori Gorski, a spokeswoman for Genzyme, said Oklahoma’s research and development laboratory will be closed in less than two months. The jobs are part of the company’s first phase of reductions that will eliminate 1,000 positions worldwide for a cost savings of $383 million annually.

However, Dr. Mike Anderson, president of the Presbyterian Health Foundation (PHF), said local Genzyme employees, as well as the physical space they’ve occupied, will be sought after by others within the PHF research park.

“The upside is that PHF has grown large enough that we have other companies that need the kind of technology and the kind of experience that these employees have,” he said. “We fully expect to see many, if not all, of those Genzyme employees placed in other companies here in the research park.”

Anderson said those employees also are being helped by Dr. William Canfield, the scientist who founded Novazyme. That company, which was acquired by Genzyme in 2001, was known for its groundbreaking research and treatment of Pompe disease. Those efforts also spawned the movie Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, though neither Canfield nor Oklahoma City were mentioned by name. However, John Crowley, who joined Novazyme in Oklahoma City and whose children suffered from Pompe disease, was prominently featured. Canfield went on to start Cytovance Biologics, which is still in operation in the PHF research park.

Anderson said another tenant is already considering Genzyme’s space at PHF, and the equipment will likely be snatched up as well.

“When a company like Genzyme goes through this, they will sell their equipment at a depreciated cost because it’s of no value of them to move,” Anderson said. “It’s an asset that all of a sudden has a very attractive price on it for somebody. We have people here who could probably use just about all of the equipment they have. That’s another reason for having a complex of companies that not only collaborate together in science, but when there’s a change in one company, a stronger company has an opportunity right here.”

Sheri Stickley, executive director of the Oklahoma Bioscience Association, added that those collaborations are important because they create the environment where another such company can form and grow to have a positive effect on Oklahoma’s economy and work force.

In 2009, Genzyme reported revenues of $4.5 billion and had more than 10,000 employees. But the company has faced troubles in recent years, including an infected bioreactor than severely limited production of some of its best-selling drugs and a multimillion-dollar fine from the Food and Drug Administration.

On Thursday, Genzyme announced that Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd. will acquire Genzyme’s diagnostic products business for $265 million in cash. In September, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) acquired Genzyme Genetics for $925 million in cash.

Gorski said it’s difficult to shut down an entire facility, especially when it means people’s lives will be affected. But she thanked them for their role in Genzyme’s mission of meeting unmet medical needs.

“We offer our sincere thanks for their contribution to Genzyme’s efforts to help these patients and for their work on behalf of patients around the world – because it was meaningful,” she said.

silvergrove
11-19-2010, 02:43 PM
I'm currently training to get a PhD in molecular biology and this is not really that surprising. It's a sad fact when private industry meets medical research. These jobs are high paying but they are fairly volatile...

However, I'm not slamming any private research. I think it's important to medical advancement but that's just the nature of the game.

okclee
11-19-2010, 03:27 PM
Never want to see a company leave Okc, but here is some good news for the PHF Research Park. Sounds like for the most part this industry is growing nicely in Okc. Aren't there plans for more PHF buildings for future expansion when needed?


Oklahoma City research park boasts growing list of tenants
Science-based companies adding jobs

BY SUSAN SIMPSON Oklahoman
Published: November 19, 2010

Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park is adding four or five science-based companies a year and expects that growth to continue for the next five years, foundation President Mike Anderson said Thursday.

The 27-acre complex near OU Health Sciences Center is home to 36 biomedical and biotechnical companies, he said during a news conference Thursday to release the research park's first “action report.” Twenty-seven other tenants include agencies such as i2E, the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and the State Regents of Higher Education.

“In a very short history of 15 years, we have seen a despairing, decaying and dying part of a city transformed, from abandonment to biotech,” Anderson said.


Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-research-park-boasts-growing-list-of-tenants/article/3515954#ixzz15lm124uW

bluedogok
11-19-2010, 07:19 PM
It happens all the time when a company is bought out by someone else.

metro
11-19-2010, 07:44 PM
You're missing the point with Canfields ties to The Hill

MIKELS129
11-19-2010, 11:11 PM
You're missing the point with Canfields ties to The Hill
Your point is flawed.:ohno:
Bill Canfield saved Cytovance which has now grown very successful and is adding very high paying jobs to the health science community; most from out of state and many of the local Genzyme employees will be going there,as well.

metro
11-20-2010, 07:58 AM
Flawed? He promised lots of new people moving into the hill only 7 have sold in how many years?

Spartan
11-21-2010, 05:51 PM
Metro, your point is flawed because it wasn't about The Hill, your point was about Genzyme. You're trying to use character assassination on Bill Canfield of all people.

Also--you went to the original OCURA meeting back in what, 2005 or 2004, and voiced your concerns about the bidding? This is interesting to me because I was under the impression you rarely get involved in person, as I've never met you at Let's Talk Transit or SandRidge hearings or BOA or or OCURA or City Council or anything else, and I thought OCURA meetings were secret or something, and we all know most of the meetings for The Hill site actually were held in loose accordance with Open Meetings.....

And to go back to your main point, I don't see what Genzyme has to do with The Hill other than Bill Canfield as an individual. I know someone who likes to make iron-hard assertions based off of loose connections and normally through in some potpouri character smears, his name is Rush Limbaugh.

Goodengroup
11-22-2010, 01:18 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZh2aer2TtI

SoonerBeerMan
11-24-2010, 12:06 PM
As a former Cytovance employee, I can assure you that the folks from the local Genzyme facility will struggle to find a job at Cytovance. Cytovance is having a hard time making payroll for the people they have on staff right now. Funding, and cash flow, are big issues right now for Cytovance. However, IF they can correct those problems then there is no reason for Cytovance to not grow and continue their previous expansion plans.

Its sad that the local Genzyme facility was a victim of the viral contamination that their Boston facility had, and has struggled to recover from.

Spartan
11-24-2010, 03:48 PM
That sucks. It always helps when high-paying jobs are locally-created and the guys control their own destiny, esp when they're getting state incentives, than if they're tied to a different office.

flippity
11-30-2010, 07:33 AM
I worked there for about 4 years right after they first opened. I am surprised they didn't close down sooner after Genzyme bought them out from Novazyme.

flippity
11-30-2010, 07:38 AM
I'm currently training to get a PhD in molecular biology and this is not really that surprising. It's a sad fact when private industry meets medical research. These jobs are high paying but they are fairly volatile...

However, I'm not slamming any private research. I think it's important to medical advancement but that's just the nature of the game.

they're not as high paying as one would think. Most of the employees have bachelor's degrees and even the ones with Master's degrees made less than $50K when I worked there.

I wonder if the animal facility is still there....hmmm...

metro
11-30-2010, 09:42 AM
Metro, your point is flawed because it wasn't about The Hill, your point was about Genzyme. You're trying to use character assassination on Bill Canfield of all people.

Also--you went to the original OCURA meeting back in what, 2005 or 2004, and voiced your concerns about the bidding? This is interesting to me because I was under the impression you rarely get involved in person, as I've never met you at Let's Talk Transit or SandRidge hearings or BOA or or OCURA or City Council or anything else, and I thought OCURA meetings were secret or something, and we all know most of the meetings for The Hill site actually were held in loose accordance with Open Meetings.....

And to go back to your main point, I don't see what Genzyme has to do with The Hill other than Bill Canfield as an individual. I know someone who likes to make iron-hard assertions based off of loose connections and normally through in some potpouri character smears, his name is Rush Limbaugh.

Shows how little you know me. Ask Steve or Doug if I get involved. And yes, I am involved less right now because I have a newborn child and a wife. Something a college schoolboy in Canada with all the right answers can't understand until he gets in the real world.

As far as Bill Canfield, why is that flawed, he is the main principal for "The Hill". Were you at the original meetings back in like 04 or 05 when he was putting on his play so he could win the bid?

Spartan
11-30-2010, 04:51 PM
Eh?