Matthew Daneman

@mdaneman

Medical diagnostics and screening company Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics is relocating dozens of Rochester-area jobs to Mexico.

New Jersey-based Ortho-Clinical said Wednesday 138 manufacturing positions — 105 held by employees and 33 by contractors — would be moved "over the next several years." Those jobs represent less than 8 percent of its Rochester-area workforce, the company said.

"We needed to engage a company that has the capability and scale required to effectively manufacture our highly-specialized diagnostics equipment for our global customer base," Ortho-Clinical spokeswoman Stephanie Scott said. "Most of our direct competitors have been doing this successfully for many years. We determined that our approach would offer the greatest ability to keep the OCD business competitive."

All of the jobs being relocated are involved in lab instrument manufacturing. After the move, the company will continue to manufacture reagents locally. According to Ortho-Clinical, affected employees will be offered severance and outplacement services.

Ortho-Clinical was formed out of the medical diagnostics business Eastman Kodak Co. sold to Johnson & Johnson in 1994.

Private equity giant The Carlyle Group bought Ortho-Clinical in 2014 from J&J.

Over the past year, Ortho-Clinical has added 200 positions and now employs close to 1,700 in the Rochester area, Scott said. "Our plans in Rochester, as we move forward, include a plan to continuing to add positions in research and development, commercial operations and the functions that support the business," she said.

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