Roche’s Genentech unit plans to cut 223 jobs from its South San Francisco, California headquarters by the end of the year. The company, which disclosed the staff reductions in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) posted by the State of California’s Employment Development Department, noted that the move comes after a review of its operations.

“We have been evaluating some of our operations to ensure we remain well-positioned to meet the needs of patients today and deliver on our pipeline of new medicines in the future,” Genentech said, adding “as a result of this process, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate some positions.”

The layoffs come as Roche looks to offset declining sales of Herceptin and MabThera/Rituxan, which are facing competition from biosimilar versions, with new products. The company reported last month that revenue from Herceptin was down 5 percent in Europe in the first half of 2018, with sales of MabThera/Rituxan dropping 9 percent.

Earlier this year, CEO Severin Schwan indicated that Roche is seeking greater efficiencies in nearly all parts of the company, without reducing the independence of its three R&D hubs of Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) and Chugai. At the time, the executive suggested that costs could be cut in manufacturing.