After reaching an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address environmental violations at a former facility, Genentech is facing a fine of $158,208.
These findings arose from an inspection conducted in 2021 at Genentech’s now-closed plant situated in South San Francisco. During this inspection, EPA officials identified several instances where the company had circumvented regulations related to the proper disposal of hazardous materials.
To elaborate, the company stored waste materials without the necessary permit and failed to adequately monitor air emissions arising from these materials, as stated by the EPA. Furthermore, the safeguards for preventing overfilling in a hazardous waste tank were not properly maintained, according to the agency’s report. Inspectors also discovered that the waste manifests did not include all the required federal waste codes.
“When a company fails to comply with hazardous waste storage and monitoring requirements, that company puts workers and communities at risk of harmful exposures,” EPA pacific southwest regional administrator Martha Guzman said in the EPA’s release.
Genentech’s South San Francisco campus encompasses over 40 buildings with diverse functions. In March, the company executed its previously established plan to gradually phase out operations at the South San Francisco production facility, leading to the displacement of approximately 265 employees. Most of these staff members were relocated to a new clinical supply center on the same campus.
Originally constructed in the late 1970s, the plant has served as the starting point for the development of 14 different molecules.
Genentech has now shifted its production focus to a new launch center located in Oceanside, California, in order to meet some of its manufacturing requirements. This $450 million plant is essentially designed to replicate the functionality of the South San Francisco site, as explained by Nazeli Dertsakian, the Vice President and General Manager of Oceanside Biologics Operations, in an interview with FiercePharma conducted in February. The construction of this facility is expected to be completed by 2024.
Roche, Genentech’s parent company, is also exploring the possibility of selling or shutting down its California manufacturing site by 2029, according to recent reports.
