Seattle-based Dendreon Corp., which has a Seal Beach plant, recently sold another manufacturing facility in Morris Plains, N.J. to Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. for $43 million.
Dendreon makes Provenge, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
It had previously said it would close the Morris Plains plant and restructure its administrative department in a bid to cut costs by $150 million a year.
The drug maker opened its Seal Beach operation on 2011 with several hundred employees, but cut about 70 of them within a few months. Dendreon’s plant is located in the Pacific Gateway Business Center near the Garden Grove (22) Freeway.
The Seal Beach manufacturing center and another in Georgia are expected to continue operations, according to the company.
Dendreon has faced challenges since company officials acknowledged that usage and acceptance of Provenge, which costs $93,000 a treatment, would be a more gradual process than first believed.
