Monday, December 11, 2017

Amgen Gives $500,000 For Wildfire Relief

Thousand Oaks-based biotech giant Amgen said this morning that it is donating $500,000 to relief efforts for the Southern California wildfires. According to Amgen, $200,000 of that funding will go to the United Way of Ventura County, for immediate relief efforts; in addition, $300,000 more will go to support victims of the Southern California wildfires. The funds come from Amgen's nonprofit arm, the Amgen Foundation. Amgen also said it will match donations made by Amgen staff around the world, who wish to contribute their own funds to qualifying Southern California wildfire relief efforts. Amgen normally does a 1:1 match to employee contributions to qualified nonprofits. The fires hit pretty close to home for the company, which was evacuated on Tuesday due to a small brush fire which broke out in 40 mph winds a couple of blocks behind the company's campus in Newbury Park; that evacuation resulted in massive traffic jams on Rancho Conejo Boulevard. That fire was quickly extinguished.