Amgen to build $600M research center in Thousand Oaks

Look inside the Grant R. Brimhall Library in Thousand Oaks

Here’s a look at the Grant R. Brimhall Library in Thousand Oaks in February 2025.

• Amgen plans to start work soon on the new center, which will replace an older building on its Thousand Oaks campus.
• Local government officials called the company’s announcement “seismic” and “monumental.”

Amgen is still far and away the biggest private-sector employer in Ventura County, but in recent years, most of its growth has happened away from its Thousand Oaks headquarters.

Not anymore. On Sept. 2, Amgen announced that it plans to spend $600 million on a new pharmaceutical research and development facility at its main campus in Thousand Oaks. Construction is expected to begin soon, and the project will create “hundreds of U.S. jobs,” the biotechnology company said in its announcement.

“This is monumental,” said Ventura County Supervisor Jeff Gorell, whose district includes Amgen’s headquarters and the rest of Thousand Oaks. “It’s huge for Ventura County. It could not be bigger.”

Thousand Oaks City Manager Andrew Powers called Amgen’s announcement “a seismic event,” and said the company is making “very likely one of the largest single-project economic development investments in Ventura County’s history.”

“It’s difficult to understate just how impactful this will be for Ventura County’s economy,” Powers said. “It’s a real shot of adrenaline at an important moment for us.”

The new research and development center will replace Building 14, which was one of the first structures Amgen built on the campus in the 1980s, according to an email from Elissa Snook, Amgen’s executive director of global media relations.

Amgen already has research and development operations in Thousand Oaks, and at eight other locations in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The new facility in Thousand Oaks, Snook wrote, is “designed to bring together scientists, researchers and engineers to enhance collaboration and accelerate the discovery of next generation medicines. This new facility is designed to accelerate the path from discovery to breakthrough by uniting cutting-edge science, advanced technology, and seamless collaboration under one roof.”

Snook did not answer questions about how big the facility will be, how many people will work there, what product lines they will research or exactly when construction will begin.

Politics could be a factor, analyst says

David Amsellem, a senior research analyst with Piper Sandler who covers Amgen and other biotechnology companies, said Amgen’s announcement fits a pattern of U.S. pharmaceutical companies expanding their domestic manufacturing and research and development operations.

It’s not hard to see a political dimension to these moves, Amsellem said.

“Given the specter of tariffs, I think what the industry is trying to accomplish here is to take some of the heat off, collectively,” he said. “In other words, if they continue to invest in domestic capacity and create jobs here, that will ultimately put them in the good graces of the administration.”

Putting the new research and development center in California means Amgen will likely satisfy both President Donald Trump’s administration and that of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Amsellem said, at a time when drug companies have taken public relations hits from both sides of the aisle.

“It behooves Amgen to be in the good graces of both parties, particularly for an industry that, fairly or unfairly, has been a lightning rod on out-of-pocket expenses for consumers,” Amsellem said. “The optics of what Amgen is doing here and what their peers are doing here is good for the industry.”

Politics aside, Amsellem said U.S. companies need to spend more on research and development because there’s been a huge boom in biotechnology spending in China, and Chinese companies are catching up to their American competitors.

“I think the industry is going to continue to put its foot on the gas in terms of doing things that have good political optics, but at the same time, investing in domestic research and development and manufacturing is good from a practical sense and an economic sense,” Amsellem said.

Snook, Amgen’s spokesperson, did not answer an emailed question about whether the company is trying to curry favor with either political party.

Amgen’s Sept. 2 announcement mentioned legislation passed during both of Trump’s terms as president, and said the company has invested more than $40 billion in manufacuturing and research and development since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, including more than $5 billion in direct captial expenditures in the United States.

“The enactment of pro-growth tax policies in TCJA, extended and reinforced by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, further facilitates Amgen’s ability to invest domestically in cutting-edge science and manufacturing,” the company’s statement says.

Relieving anxiety over Amgen’s future in Thousand Oaks

Amgen is bigger than ever, with about 28,000 employees worldwide and revenue last year of more than $33 billion. But its presence in Thousand Oaks isn’t quite what it once was.

With around 5,500 local employees, Amgen is by far the biggest non-government employer in Ventura County. In 2007, though, the company employed more than 8,000 people in Thousand Oaks.

In a series of cutbacks in the 2000s and 2010s, Amgen laid off thousands of people, many of them in Thousand Oaks. It also moved functions like human resources and information technology to other locations.

In recent years, its new factories and research facilities have been far from home. In 2022, Amgen opened a new research and development center in the San Francisco Bay Area, and last year it announced plans for a $1 billion manufacturing plant in North Carolina and a $950 million expansion of its plant in Ohio. The company’s biggest manufacturing site is in Puerto Rico.

Gorell, now a Ventura County supervisor, was a member of the California Assembly in the early 2010s, when Amgen was making cuts to its Thousand Oaks operations. At the time, he said, there was “a lot of anxiety” over Amgen’s future in Ventura County. The company’s plans for a major expansion in Thousand Oaks should dispel the last of those worries, he said.

“This sends a signal that Amgen is not only staying, but is absolutely committed to this community and this county,” Gorell said. “Within the last couple of years, they’ve really re-engaged in the community here and focused on their headquarters.”

The Conejo Valley is now a rising power in the biotechnology world, with a cluster of start-ups and at least one major biotech-focused venture capital firm. Gorell said he thinks Amgen’s new expansion will help the area’s biotech hub grow even more.

“This will help us attract other startups and other midsized companies to the this region, we hope,” he said. “This is the big strategy, to create new jobs here so people don’t have to leave the region or drive into L.A. or Santa Barbara to find good jobs.”

Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.

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