RARITAN BOROUGH -- Three hundred employees of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, which employs 4,500 people worldwide, were notified Friday that their jobs are being eliminated.
The employees work for the company's research and early development unit in Raritan Borough, which will be consolidated with a similar unit in Spring House, Pa., just outside Philadelphia, spokesman Ernie Knewitz said.
J&J Pharmaceutical Research & Development is one of six companies that conducts work for J&J's pharmaceutical business units, he said. Its mission is to develop new drugs and delivery systems.
The company is studying drug targets in several areas, including immunology, neuroscience, bacterial genomics, molecular virology and oncology, Knewitz said. The Raritan Borough campus, one of nine worldwide, employs more than 1,700 people.
The Pennsylvania site, which employs about 625 people, will add 100 jobs and will become the new headquarters for the research and early development unit, he said.
The announcement of the layoffs was made by Garry Neil, president of J&J Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Knewitz said. He said employees had previously been notified that a review was under way to find ways to make the unit more productive.
"The unit was consolidated with a unit doing similar work about 50 miles away," Knewitz said. "By creating one larger unit with a greater critical mass, we felt we could be more productive."
The unit conducts research in drug discovery and takes drug development into the earliest stages of clinical trials, he said. Those who lost their jobs included both research and support personnel.
The employees were given 60 days' notice and will be provided with financial severance packages as well as job support. Knewitz said the layoffs were the first at J&J Pharmaceutical Research & Development in some time.
Some employees will be given the opportunity to apply for jobs at the Pennsylvania site, he said.
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