Securing sterility leads to union headache for Genzyme

Genzyme changes cleanroom cleaning co to ire of unions

Attempting to ensure cleanroom sterility has gotten Genzyme into hot water with Trade Unions who protested outside a Fabrazyme manufacturing plant yesterday.

The Framingham, Massachusetts, facility was purpose built to process Genzyme’s Fabry Disease drug Fabrazyme (agalsidase beta) following viral contamination issues at its Allston Landing facility that led to a worldwide shortage and a consent decree from the US Food and Drink Administration (FDA).

However, the Sanofi-subsidiary is now in trouble with members of the Service Employees International Union who protested outside the site yesterday following the hire a non-union cleaning firm - making 50 union janitors redundant - in order to better service its sterile cleanrooms.

“We require precise maintenance of sterile clean rooms,” Genzyme spokesperson Bo Piela told the MetroWest Daily News. “It is a highly complex, tightly regulated cleaning procedure performed by highly trained personnel.

“We felt the vendor was in the best position to provide us these very specialized cleaning services that are required in the state of the art facilities.”

The protests come just days after the firm announced it was committing $80m (€59m) to a new downstream processing facility for Fabrazyme opposite the current Framingham site.