Amgen to lay off 300 before next year’s shutdown

Seattle — Almost half of Amgen’s 660 local employees face layoff by the end of 2015 as the company winds down its Seattle and Bothell operations.

The biotechnology giant said Thursday that 274 employees at its waterfront Seattle research campus and 26 at its Bothell manufacturing plant will be laid off. The rest are retiring, relocating or resigning, said spokeswoman Carol Pawlak, who would not give a breakdown.

Some employees will be at the 750,000-square-foot Seattle research facility until the end of 2015, she said.

Although a notice to the state Employment Security Department on Thursday gave the layoff date for the 274 Seattle workers as Dec. 31, they will be leaving “gradually” through 2015, Pawlak said.

When the company’s consolidation move was announced in July, it had 660 employees at the two sites, making it the area’s biggest biotech employer. It said then that some employees would be offered relocation to the Boston and San Francisco locations where it will concentrate its research.