Biotech manufacturing jobs are desirable

San Diego County's biggest biotech manufacturing plant is officially in business. Biotech giant Genentech Inc. is also providing hundreds of well-paying jobs and boosting North County's economy.

The plant, bought for $408 million by Genentech in 2005, recently received government approval to make Avastin, its blockbuster cancer drug.

A building that looks like many commercial office buildings, the plant has something very different at its core ---- huge, spotless metal fermentation tanks resembling those found in a brewery. The tanks are so large that they begin on one floor and end on another.


These carefully monitored tanks, deep within the building and not open to the public, are now fermenting Avastin, far more valuable than beer. Avastin, which treats colorectal cancer, brings Genentech sales of $1.7 billion a year.

The plant, in eastern Oceanside, is expected to help Genentech, based in South San Francisco, bring in even more revenue. Its tanks have a capacity of 90,000 liters, one-third of Genentech's Avastin manufacturing capacity.

This plant, which employs 590, adds the last element missing from the region's biotech industry: large-scale commercial drug manufacturing. Local scientists have long researched drugs here. But production was usually handled by a large pharmaceutical partner that manufactured elsewhere. Local business leaders want those jobs, which pay much more than typical manufacturing jobs.

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