Lieutenant Governor Bob Duffy says he plans to head to New Jersey next month to talk with officials of Bausch and Lomb’s parent company.
Duffy says this will be the first date for a meeting that has been made available to him by officials with Valeant, the Canadian pharmaceutical company which recently acquired B and L. In the process, Valeant said it was cutting just over 400 jobs in Rochester, mainly on the corporate side, but leaving the manufacturing and research and development positions alone.
Duffy says the state and local officials don’t really have any leverage in trying to prevent the planned layoffs, but he hopes to convince the Valeant officials to consider taking a look at adding other kinds of jobs in Rochester in the future.
“We would love to have their headquarters here, but it’s in new jersey, and maybe someday if we’re successful and work hard, we’ll get Valeant to look at Rochester to have their headquarters here.”
Duffy is also going to ask Valeant officials to consider the new, Start-Up NY initiative, which provides tax free zones to companies who locate near college campuses.
