Ferring Pharmaceuticals will close its San Diego-based global research arm, laying off 89 workers in the process.
In a California WARN notice filed last week, the Switzerland-based drugmaker disclosed the permanent closure of the Ferring Research Institute (FRI). According to the institute's website, the "ideas incubator" facilitates collaboration "across scientific and organizational frontiers."
Per the WARN notice, the closure will be effective May 26, 2023.
The institute opened in San Diego in 1996 and was relocated to its current 38,000-square-foot facility in Sorrento Valley in 2009. Ferring had just completed an investment and expansion program last year.
Ferring focuses on five main areas of research: reproductive medicine and maternal health, gastroenterology, urology, microbiome and early stage development.
The drugmaker closed out 2022 on a high note, snagging two FDA approvals in the final month of the year. In early December 2022, the FDA approved Ferring's Rebyota — the first fecal microbiota therapy — for the prevention of the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection in adults. Weeks later, Ferring announced that the FDA had approved its novel adenovirus vector-based gene therapy, Adstiladrin — marking the first gene therapy approval for bladder cancer.
