Sanofi Genzyme’s manufacturing facility at Allston Landing in Boston is laying off 130 employees this week to reduce costs and “simplify our operations,” the company said Wednesday.
“We must be flexible in our operations to remain competitive in a dynamic and challenging healthcare environment,” Ashleigh Koss, spokeswoman for the French parent company, Sanofi SA, said in a statement.
Koss would not say how many workers remain at the facility but said Sanofi has about 5,000 employees in Massachusetts — in Allston, Cambridge, Framingham, Northborough, Waltham, and Westborough. They work in research and development, biomanufacturing, and commercial operations.
The Allston Landing plant will remain a biomanufacturing site, she said.
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In 2011, Sanofi bought Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp., which specialized in developing medicines for rare diseases, for more than $20 billion. Genzyme, which was renamed Sanofi Genzyme, essentially became the rare-disease unit of Sanofi, which employs about 100,000 people worldwide.
Last month, Sanofi made a major acquisition, paying $11.6 billion to buy the hemophilia drug maker Bioverativ Inc., of Waltham. Biogen Inc., the largest Massachusetts-based drug maker, spun off Bioverativ as a separate company in 2017.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com