Drugmaker Amgen cuts a quarter of its Kendall Square research staff

Just a few years after kicking off an expansion in New England, California drugmaker Amgen Inc. is laying off a quarter of its workforce in Cambridge.Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) disclosed in a state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification note late Friday that it will cut 149 people working in its Cambridge research facility. The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company currently has around 600 employees in Massachusetts and 21,000 employees worldwide, according to Business Journal data.The drugmaker&