Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG is closing its former U.S. headquarters, a sprawling facility where the groundbreaking drugs Valium and interferon were invented.

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The move is part of a consolidation of research programs that will eliminate 1,000 jobs and shut down the site in Nutley, N.J., by the end of 2013.

Nutley served as Roche's headquarters for marketing, sales and administration, plus the base for numerous research programs, from 1929 until 2009.

Roche bought biotech drugmaker Genentech that year and transferred headquarters operations to Genentech's base in South San Francisco, Calif.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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