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Box of office supplies over abstract background/Taylor Tieden for BioSpace

2023 was a tough year for the biopharma industry, with several companies downsizing and restructuring their workforces to stay afloat. There are signs of recovery, as mergers and acquisitions picked up across the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry in the latter part of 2023 and have continued their upswing into 2024. Will the job market follow suit?

BioSpace will continue to be your source of news on job cuts and restructuring initiatives throughout 2024. Follow along as we keep you up to date on which companies are tightening their belts and cutting staff.

July

July 3

Oncology biopharma Apollomics is letting go of two members of its leadership team as well as an unspecified number of staff, the company announced Tuesday. “As a result of the updated strategic focus, and aligned with the Company’s resource needs going forward, Sanjeev Redkar, Ph.D., Company co-founder and President, and Peony Yu, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, are expected to transition to consulting roles in August,” the announcement stated, also noting the departure of “other employees.” The reductions are linked to the company’s narrowing of the target patient population for its candidate vebreltinib, currently in a Phase II clinical trial for certain tumors.

July 3

CureVac will reduce its workforce by 30% as it restructures its mRNA collaboration with GSK, the German company announced Tuesday. The two companies began collaborating on mRNA vaccines in 2020 and have candidates for seasonal influenza, COVID-19 and avian influenza in the pipeline. Under the new agreement, GSK “will assume full control of developing and manufacturing these candidate vaccines,” according to the announcement.

Meanwhile, CureVac said its reduction in force will “create a leaner, more agile organization re-focused on technology innovation, research and development” and extend its cash runway into 2028. The company employed 1,172 worldwide as of the end of 2023, according to an SEC filing, and had already shed about 150 employees through a “voluntary leaver” program in April.

July 2

Takeda will lay off a further 220 employees in Massachusetts, the company disclosed in a June 27 WARN notice. Of those, 189 people will be let go from a location in Cambridge, and 31 are being laid off in Lexington. In total, Takeda has now laid off or announced plans to lay off more than 1,300 employees so far in 2024, on top of staffing cuts it made in 2023.

A Takeda spokesperson told Endpoints in an emailed statement the company is prioritizing “increasing organizational agility, improving procurement savings, and strengthening how we leverage data, digital and technology across Takeda. . . . As we continue to work to bring these initiatives to fruition, difficult choices will also be required, and some employees will be impacted as a result.”

July 1

Waltham, Massachusetts–based Aerovate Therapeutics will lay off “nearly all of its workforce” in the coming months following the Phase IIb failure of its candidate for pulmonary arterial hypertension, the company disclosed to the SEC on June 25. Aerovate added that it has already notified 39 people—78% of its workforce—of their terminations.

July 1

Swiss biotech GeNeuro is laying off all but two of its staff members in the wake of the Phase II failure of its candidate for long COVID, the company announced Friday. GeNeuro “has made redundant 7 of its 9 employment agreements, including all of the Executive Management,” the announcement said. “All employees and managers will work through their notice periods, of up to 6 months, to execute the strategy that will be defined by the Board over the coming days.”

June

June 27

EuroAPI, a spinoff of Sanofi, will lay off approximately 550 people by 2027, the company announced Wednesday. The cuts are part of a multi-year restructuring plan that EuroAPI first made public when it unveiled its 2023 results, though few details were given at the time. According to the Wednesday announcement, the manufacturer will sell plants in Haverhill, UK, and Brindisi, Italy, leaving it with four remaining production sites. EuroAPI will also discontinue manufacturing 13 pharmaceutical ingredients.

June 25

California-based eFFECTOR Therapeutics has parted ways with its staff and will wind down operations and ask to be delisted from the NASDAQ, the company announced Monday. eFFECTOR, which was founded in 2012, reported disappointing results in April from a Phase IIb trial of its candidate for non-small cell lung cancer. But in its Q1 update, the company stated it was continuing to make progress with another anticancer candidate, zotatifin, and that its cash runway extended into the first quarter of 2025.

According to an SEC filing, eFFECTOR had 14 employees as of February 29 of this year.

June 25

Xellia Pharmaceuticals will lay off 247 employees in the U.S., most of them in Bedford, Ohio, according to a June 17 WARN notice reported by Fierce Pharma. The move by Copenhagen-based Xellia comes after the company announced the sale of its Bedford plant to generic drugmaker Hikma, Fierce notes.

June 24

G1 Therapeutics announced on Monday that it intends to make a “targeted headcount reduction” to streamline the company, but did not provide specific numbers. The layoff was disclosed as part of an announcement of results regarding G1’s drug Cosela (trilaciclib), which failed to show a statistically significant treatment effect in a Phase III trial in triple-negative breast cancer patients; the company said it will “wind down” the trial. G1 also stated that it expects its streamlining efforts to provide the company with enough of a cash runway to achieve profitability in the second half of 2025.

June 21

Ginkgo Bioworks, which announced last month that it will cut labor costs by up to 25%, has now notified the state that it plans 158 layoffs, the Boston Globe reported. A Ginkgo spokesperson told the outlet that the Boston-based company will disclose more layoffs next week, but would not say how many.

June 20

Cara Therapeutics will lay off 70% of its staff by the end of this month, the company disclosed in an SEC filing dated June 14. Just two days earlier, the biopharma firm made public the discontinuation of its candidate treatment for moderate-to-severe pruritus in notalgia paresthetica after a failed Phase 2/3 trial. The latest layoffs follow Cara’s January announcement of a workforce reduction of up to 50%. According to its LinkedIn profile, the Stamford, CT–based company has between 51–200 employees.

June 13

In what it is calling a “pipeline prioritization,” Barinthus Biotherapeutics will cut approximately 25% of its workforce, the Oxford, U.K.–based company said in a Wednesday press release. Barinthus is throwing its resources behind programs in chronic hepatitis B and celiac disease, deprioritizing a prostate cancer candidate. The company recently presented positive interim data from two ongoing Phase II trials of its hepatitis B candidate, VTP-300, at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress.

Barinthus, which is developing novel T cell immunotherapeutic candidates, has between 51 and 200 employees, according to LinkedIn.

June 12

Agilent Technologies, Inc. will lay off nearly 200 California employees effective August 9, according to a WARN notice. The cuts include 156 employees at the CDMO’s Santa Clara headquarters, seven in Santa Barbara County, 17 in San Diego County and four in Folsom. Company spokesperson Sarah Litton told SFGATE that the cuts are part of a 3% layoff “across operations and regions” and that with them, Agilent is aiming to “adjust to the pace of recovery in the market.”

Agilent reported a 5.6% decline in revenue for Q1 of this year compared to the same period last year. Prior to that, it had reported 36 California layoffs in late 2023 that became effective in January 2024.

June 6

Bristol Myers Squibb will lay off 863 employees in Lawrenceville, New Jersey over the remaining months of 2024, according to a WARN notice reported by Fierce Pharma. The pharma giant announced in April that it would implement a sweeping “strategic productivity initiative” in a bid to generate approximately $1.5 billion in cost savings through 2025, including eliminating around 2,200 jobs by the end of this year. The new disclosure of New Jersey layoffs follows a March WARN notice of 75 jobs cut in Lawrenceville.

May

May 28

Takeda will undergo more layoffs, with 641 workers in Massachusetts set to get the ax, according to Endpoints News. A company spokesperson told Endpoints that the bulk of the layoffs will be in Cambridge, with 495, while 146 positions will also be eliminated in Lexington. Layoffs will begin in July and continue until March 2025. Takeda announced that it is undertaking a restructuring of over $900 million and has already committed to closing an R&D facility in San Diego, which employs more than 300 people. The Japanese pharma currently employs 36,893 people, according to LinkedIn, of which more than 18,000 are in the U.S.

May 22

Germany-based Evotec is closing a gene therapy–focused site in Austria, affecting 40 staff members, the company announced Wednesday. The move marks Evotec’s exit from the gene therapy space, which it had entered in April 2020, Endpoints News noted.

May 22

Lyra Therapeutics is laying off 87 employees—75% of its workforce—following disappointing Phase III results for its implant to treat chronic rhinosinusitis, the company said Tuesday. Its announcement added that Lyra “has stopped manufacturing and commercialization efforts and seeks to sublease its facilities to significantly reduce the Company’s operating costs.” The Massachusetts-based biotech said that the cuts extend its cash runway into 2026.

May 22

Takeda is shuttering an R&D hub in San Diego that employs 324 people, according to a May 9 WARN notice. The layoffs, part of a broader restructuring by the global company, will take effect in July. The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that some of the affected employees will be offered jobs at Takeda’s offices in Massachusetts. It added that the San Diego facility concentrated on gastroenterology, inflammation and neuroscience.

May 21

Citing “efficiency gains,” Exscientia is laying off 20–25% of its workforce, the company announced Tuesday. Based in the U.K., Exscientia was founded in 2012 on the promise of using AI to automate drug discovery and design. According to its most recent annual report, it had an “average headcount” of 501 employees in 2023. Tuesday’s announcement said the reduction in force will extend Exscientia’s cash runway into 2027.

May 20

Industry lobbying group Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has kicked off a restructuring initiative that will see the termination of 30 employees, according to exclusive reporting by STAT News.

Citing four sources, STAT noted that the layoffs will affect senior leaders at BIO including CSO Cartier Esham, Chief Policy Officer John Murphy and Chief Public Affairs and Marketing Officer Rich Masters, who confirmed to the publication that he would be leaving the group.

May 17

San Diego–based Erasca will reduce its headcount by about 18% as it drops several pipeline programs, the oncology company announced Friday. Concurrently, it is licensing two candidates from Chinese companies for development in the U.S. and other markets.

As of the end of February, Erasca had 126 full-time employees.

May 14

BioMarin Pharmaceutical is laying off approximately 170 employees globally, the company said in an SEC filing. According to the filing, most affected employees were informed on May 14, and the layoffs will be completed by the end of July. Endpoints News notes that the move comes on the heels of BioMarin’s announcement last month that it will cut several of its pipeline programs.

May 14

Redwood City, California–based Bolt Biotherapeutics is discontinuing development of its lead oncology asset and laying off approximately 50% of its workforce, the company announced Tuesday. Bolt had 100 full-time employees as of the end of 2023. Among those to find new positions is Bolt CEO Randall Schatzman, who will now assume an advisory role and be replaced by former Chief Financial Officer Willie Quinn.

According to the company, the cuts will extend Bolt’s cash runway into the second half of 2026 as it prioritizes development of candidates that include an antibody targeting tumor-associated macrophages that is currently in Phase I trials.

May 14

Tenaya Therapeutics will lay off approximately 22% of its staff, the South San Francisco–based biotech announced Tuesday as it released its first-quarter financial results. The company said it has enough funds to last into the second half of 2025 as it continues development of therapies for several heart conditions. As of the end of 2023, the company had 140 employees.

May 14

WuXi AppTec will reduce its headcount at a site in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a company spokesperson told Endpoints News in an email. The number of workers affected was not specified, but the spokesperson described it as a “small percentage,” attributing the cuts to “a shift in market conditions over the past 18 months.”

China-based WuXi is named in the BIOSECURE Act, which would force U.S. biopharma companies to cut ties with Chinese biotechs by 2023. The bill will be the subject of a vote Wednesday by a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

May 14

Bayer announced on Tuesday that it has reduced its headcount by approximately 1,500 jobs, mostly management positions in its pharmaceuticals, crop science and consumer health divisions. The announcement came as part of the company’s first-quarter earnings report, in which it cited a 4.3% dip in sales compared with the same period last year.

“Approximately two-thirds of these were management jobs,” CEO Bill Anderson said of the workforce reductions in a media call.

“Our senior leadership circle is already considerably smaller than it was a year ago,” Anderson noted, adding that the layoffs will help the company hit its target of “€500 million ($540 million) of sustainable cost savings in 2024 and €2 billion ($2.16 billion) in 2026.”

May 9

Ginkgo Bioworks will cut spending following disappointing first-quarter financial results, including reducing labor expenses by at least 25%, the company announced Thursday. Ginkgo, a Boston-based company that focuses on cell engineering and biosecurity, saw its total revenue fall from $81 million in the first quarter of 2023 to $38 million in the most recent quarter. Its stock price fell 17% on the news, Endpoints News reported.

On a Thursday investor call, Ginkgo CEO Jason Kelly said the company had not yet determined the exact number of layoffs, Endpoints reported. According to an SEC filing, Ginkgo had 1,218 employees as of the end of 2023.

May 8

Radnor, Penn.–based Marinus Pharmaceuticals will part ways with approximately 20% of its staff and implement other cost-saving measures in order to extend its cash runway late into the first quarter of 2025, the company announced in a Q1 financial report.

The cuts come after disappointing results from the Phase III RAISE trial, which evaluated ganaxolone in refractory status epilepticus, according to the Silicon Valley Journals. The trial did not meet the pre-defined stopping criteria at the interim analysis.

May 7

Kenvue, which spun off from Johnson & Johnson last year and manufactures consumer products such as Tylenol and Band-Aids, will reduce its global workforce by about 4%, the company announced Tuesday. Fierce Biopharma reports that the company had about 23,000 employees at the end of 2023.

The reduction announcement, made as part of Kenvue’s Q1 financial results, comes as its transition service agreement with Johnson & Johnson winds down. The company said it expects to save about $350 million annually as a result of the cuts.

May 1

Emergent BioSolutions announced it would cut its current workforce by 300 and eliminate 85 vacant positions as it seeks to reduce annual expenses by $80 million. The Narcan maker said it will close manufacturing sites in Baltimore and Rockville, Md., as it “actively explores strategic alternatives” for other facilities.

April

April 26

As part of Bristol Myers Squibb’s plan to trim 2,200 jobs this year under a $1.5 billion cost-savings initiative, the company is shuttering its Cancer Immunology & Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center in Redwood City, Calif., the San Francisco Business Times reported. The publication did not indicate how many people are being let go from that location, but said that those who survive the layoffs will be shifted to a BMS facility in Brisbane, Calif.

April 25

Bristol Myers Squibb will eliminate 2,200 jobs by the end of 2024 as part of a sweeping, company-wide effort to reduce costs by $1.5 billion, BMS announced in its first-quarter 2024 earnings report. The company is looking to optimize its operations by reducing management layers, among other cost-cutting measures, according to its investor presentation. The firm will also prioritize the development of its key growth brands and minimize third-party expenditures.

April 24

CureVac will eliminate as many as 150 jobs this year as part of a “voluntary leaver” program, the company said in announcing its 2023 financial results. The German-American mRNA-focused biopharma firm said it is reprioritizing its pipeline while leaning into innovation and R&D.

April 23

Tessera Therapeutics is trimming 13%–14% of its current staff, amounting to “less than 50” current employees, according to Endpoints News. The cuts come as the startup reportedly tries to advance several of its genomically engineered candidates to clinical stage. Tessera will present preclinical data on several of its assets at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy meeting next month.

April 23

BenevolentAI is closing its U.S. office and cutting approximately 30% of its current workforce as its seeks to slow its cash burn. The British company expects to have about 180 employees by the end of 2024 as its refocuses on artificial intelligence–driven drug discovery in collaboration with larger partners including Merck KGaA. BenevolentAI also made deep staff cuts a year ago.

April 22

Bristol Myers Squibb has initiated the first round of a series of job cuts in Lawrenceville, N.J., BioSpace reported. A WARN notice filed in March in New Jersey indicated that 75 people would lose their jobs in at various intervals between now and early December.

April 22

Pfizer will close down a research facility in Colorado by the end of Q2, costing an undisclosed number of jobs, Endpoints News reported. The site, which mostly investigates small molecules for oncology, has been a Pfizer property since the company acquired Array BioPharma in 2019. The Big Pharma firm has made a strategic decision to shift investment from small molecules to biologics in response to the so-called “pill penalty” in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Correction (May 31): This entry originally stated that the closed facility was in Colorado Springs, but it was in fact in Boulder. BioSpace regrets the error.

April 19

Sanofi has extended its layoffs to its Belgian operations by cutting 99 jobs at two sites, Fierce Biotech reported, citing Belgian Newspaper De Tijd. The French firm has already cut loose 67 people at the former Ablynx site in Ghent and plans to eliminate another 32 more at its head Belgium office in Diegem. Most of the Ghent cuts are early-stage research jobs, including in oncology.

April 18

Sanofi will cut an undisclosed number of jobs as part of a restructuring of its U.S. vaccines division. This round of layoffs follows last week’s news that the company would divest Amunix Pharmaceuticals, resulting in the elimination of 100 jobs from a San Francisco site on June 3.

April 16

Vedanta Biosciences CEO Bernat Olle posted on LinkedIn that the company will eliminate 12 positions from its chemistry, manufacturing and controls team. According to Olle, “We are coming off a peak of manufacturing campaigns that supplied several mid and late-stage clinical studies in our pipeline.”

April 16

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies may eliminate as many as 240 jobs at sites in Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts and in the U.K. as part of a restructuring of its Small Scale Business Unit. The company said that the business unit has been “directly impacted by the short-term challenge of reduced venture capital investment in early-stage research projects,” notably in cell and gene therapies.

April 11

Genentech will reduce its workforce by about 3% across multiple departments, a company representative confirmed in an email to BioSpace. According to Genentech’s website, the firm has about 13,500 employees, suggesting that there will be about 405 cuts. The spokesperson said that there will be no net workforce reductions at parent company Roche.

April 10

Sanofi will eliminate 100 jobs on June 3 from a San Francisco site as part of a planned divestiture of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, an immuno-oncology company it bought for $1 billion in 2021, according to a WARN notice first reported by Endpoints News.

The cuts follow news from April 4 that Sanofi will cut an unspecified number of jobs as part of a “full pipeline reprioritization” effort, R&D chief Houman Ashrafian told staff in an email obtained by Fierce Biotech. The French pharma giant is shifting its R&D toward immunology, as evidenced by its pending $2.2 billion acquisition of Inhibrx.

April 9

Novartis is continuing its deep workforce cuts by announcing plans to eliminate about 680 jobs in product development over the next two to three years, with about 440 of those currently based in Switzerland and the other 240 in the U.S., according to Reuters. Many of those jobs will be shifted to other "established hubs" over the next two years, a Novartis spokesperson told BioSpace, resulting in a net reduction of 1% to 2% in the company's global development workforce, which now stands at about 12,500. Reuters reported that the new downsizing is separate from a two-year-old restructuring program that could ultimately cost as many as 8,000 people their jobs.

Correction (April 10): This story has been updated from its original version to reflect the proper percentage of jobs that are being cut, BioSpace regrets the error.

April 4

Citing slow uptake of its Humira biosimilar Cyltezo (adalimumab-adbm), Boehringer Ingelheim is cutting its customer-facing salesforce. While the company did not disclose the number of layoffs, Stat News reported that about 70 employees are losing their jobs, citing an anonymous source.

April 4

As a result of its decision to pull ALS drug Relyvrio from the U.S. and Canadian markets following a Phase III trial failure, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals will downsize its workforce by about 70%. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had 384 employees at the end of 2023.

April 3

Thermo Fisher Scientific will eliminate 74 jobs at its plasmid DNA manufacturing site in Carlsbad, Calif., starting May 31, Fierce Pharma reported. The facility opened less than three years ago.

April 1

Carisma Therapeutics disclosed in its Q4 financial release that will cut its workforce by 37% in Q2 as part of a restructuring that will shut down development of its former lead candidate, CT-0508, a targeted CAR-M for treatment of advanced and metastatic cancers with overexpressed HER2. Though a Phase I trial of CT-0508 met its primary endpoints, Carisma will prioritize CT-0525, a CAR-monocyte, for development of an anti-HER2 therapy.

March

March 28

Omega Therapeutics said in its Q4 financial release that it has cut approximately 35% of its workforce following a strategic review of its business. The company will prioritize its preclinical programs, including OTX-2101 for non-small cell lung cancer, an HNF4A agent for fibrotic liver disease and a partnership with Novo Nordisk to develop an epigenomic controller to target obesity. Omega disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had 93 full-time employees at the end of 2023.

March 28

Xilio Therapeutics announced it is cutting 15 jobs, or about 21% of its current workforce as part of a “strategic portfolio reprioritization.” The layoffs coincide with a $113 million private placement as well as a deal for Gilead Sciences to license Xilio’s XTX301, a tumor-activated IL-12 and XTX101, a tumor-activated, Fc-enhanced CTLA-4 inhibitor, for $43.5 million upfront and future contingent payments of as much as $604 million.

March 27

Bayer revealed in a WARN notice that it will lay off 90 workers at its U.S. headquarters in Whippany, N.J., effective June 19, Fierce Pharma reported. The move comes just a week after Bayer cut several top executives their jobs as part of a reorganization announced in January.

March 26

Bristol Myers Squibb disclosed in a WARN notice in California that it is letting go 252 workers at the former Mirati Therapeutics headquarters in San Diego, effective April 22. Fierce Pharma first reported the notice. BMS completed its $4.8 billion acquisition of Mirati Jan. 23.

March 22

Theratechnologies is eliminating an unspecified number of jobs as it phases out preclinical oncology research activities in favor of an in-progress Phase I trial of its peptide-drug conjugate sudocetaxel zendusortide (TH1902) for advanced ovarian cancer. The company said that it will absorb $625,000 in cash charges to cover severance and related expenses, as well as $770,000 in non-cash charges as part of the restructuring. Last month, the FDA refused to review Theratechnologies’ supplemental Biologics License Application for a new formulation of the HIV therapy Trogarzo.

March 21

GSK will be cutting loose the majority of its former Bellus Health employees on March 31, according to a LinkedIn post from ex-Bellus CEO Roberto Bellini. GSK bought Bellus a year ago for $2 billion, largely to acquire the latter’s Phase III candidate camlipixant, a P2X3 receptor antagonist proposed to treat chronic cough. In December, competitor Merck for the second time failed to gain FDA approval for its own P2X3 candidate, gefapixant.

March 21

NextCure disclosed in a regulatory filing that it is cutting its workforce to 51 full-time employees from the current 81, a reduction of 37%. To save cash, the company will focus on its NC410 candidate combination therapy for ovarian and colorectal cancers and LNCB74, an ADC that targets B7-H4 and is being developed in collaboration with LegoChem Biosciences. NextCure will pause development of its other assets as the company seeks partners or buyers to advance them.

March 21

Catalent will lay off 130 workers at one of its manufacturing sites in Bloomington, Ind. According to The Herald-Times, the manufacturer said it will cut jobs to “increase efficiencies” and “lower costs” but provided no details on what positions will be axed or further explanations on the move. This is not the first time Catalent has undertaken layoffs at its Bloomington facility, as the CDMO laid off hundreds of employees in 2022 and 2023. Just last month, Novo Nordisk agreed to acquire Catalent for $16.5 billion, and the Bloomington facility will soon be sold to Novo Nordisk to boost GLP-1 manufacturing capabilities.

March 20

Bayer has trimmed its executive team to eight people, down from 14, as part of a major operating overhaul announced in January. Among those out of work are Anne-Grethe Mortensen, head of global marketing; Gerd Krüger, head of radiology; and Heiko Schipper, president of the company’s consumer health division. CMO Michael Devoy will retain his role but will no longer be part of the leadership team.

March 13

Spruce Biosciences has cut 21% of its workforce as part of a round of cost reductions that includes the shutdown of its CAHmelia-203 clinical trial, the company announced in its 2023 fourth quarter financial report. In a separate press release Thursday, Spruce revealed that the trial of its oral CRF1 antagonist tildacerfont failed in the treatment of adult classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

March 13

Coherus BioSciences is cutting its workforce by 30% as part of a restructuring that will result in a greater focus on oncology, the biotech announced Thursday in its 2023 fourth quarter financial results and business update. The firm completed the $170 million sale of its ophthalmology business to Sandoz on March 1, though the current round of layoffs did not begin until March 7.

March 12

Takeda Pharmaceuticals is shutting down R&D and manufacturing operations at a facility in Orth an der Donau, Austria, cutting 190 jobs in the process, Endpoints News reported, citing Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung. About 140 people will remain at the site in quality control as Takeda seeks to sell the property, which it picked up when it acquired Shire in 2019.

March 12

Innovent Biologics eliminated its entire research team at its U.S. headquarters and wet lab in Rockville, Md., near the end of February and will close the facility in the near future, BioSpace first reported. The Suzhou, China–based biotech conducted mostly ADC research at the Washington, D.C.–area lab.

March 11

Sanofi is closing a former Kymab R&D facility in Cambridge, U.K., according to Cambridge publication BusinessWeekly. While the Big Pharma firm said it will try to find homes elsewhere in the company for the 90 affected employees, there could be layoffs. Sanofi acquired Kymab for $1.4 billion in 2021.

March 7

Kronos Bio is cutting 21% of its workforce as part of a corporate restructuring that the company said would extend its cash runway into late 2026. Kronos—which currently has about 100 employees, according to Yahoo! Finance—announced in December that a key trial had failed in Phase Ib.

March 5

Sumitomo Pharma will lay off approximately 400 staff in order to pare down its North American business operations following disappointing sales of three of its drugs, the company announced Monday. In a subsequent announcement, Sumitomo detailed what it called an organizational alignment, including the dissolution of its CNS sales department and the departures of its managing executive officer and two executive officers. Current Vice President Yutaka Wakemi will assume the post of executive officer on April 1.

The cuts follow an earlier layoff of 62 employees in Sumitomo's New York offices in July 2023.

March 5

Meissa Vaccines is halting plans to launch a Phase II/III clinical study of its MV-012-968 intranasal RSV vaccine due to funding shortfalls, causing an unspecified number of layoffs, FierceBiotech reported. CEO Frank Glavin indicated that Meissa would “review its strategic options” in light of this funding issue, putting the future of the company in doubt.

March 4

Chemical conglomerate and CDMO Evonik Industries will eliminate as many as 2,000 jobs from its global workforce by 2026, Reuters reported. That represents 32% of the German firm’s current workforce of more than 6,200.

March 1

Pfizer will cut 120 jobs as part of its decision to end construction on a planned $350 million, 270,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Everett, Washington, according to reports from Puget Sound Business Journal and GeekWire. Pfizer, which acquired Seagen for $43 billion last year, will reportedly shift most of the manufacturing planned for the Seattle-area facility to an existing site in Sanford, North Carolina.

March 1

Arrakis Therapeutics is cutting about 20% of its staff, Endpoints News reported. The startup biotech, which is developing targeted RNA degrader therapeutics, had nearly 100 employees as of August 2023.

March 1

Moderna has laid off an unspecified number of manufacturing and quality-assurance workers in its Burlington and Norwood, Massachusetts, facilities, Endpoints News reported. The mRNA vaccine maker attributed the cuts to previously announced lower demand for COVID-19 shots, though the firm said just last week that it has completed construction on a new mRNA manufacturing facility in Quebec.

February

Feb. 29

Kineta announced a corporate restructuring that has resulted in the elimination of seven jobs, or 64% of its current workforce. Among those losing their jobs is CEO Shawn Iadonato, though he has been retained as a consultant through the end of the year as the firm considers a sale, acquisition, liquidation or other alternative. Kineta has also stopped enrolling patients in its VISTA-101 Phase I/II trial for its KVA12123 compound for advanced solid tumors.

Feb. 29

Gritstone Bio announced it is trimming its workforce by about 40% following the delay of its planned Phase IIb study for a self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, which cost the company funding from the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support the research. Gritstone said the study will now launch in the fall of 2024 as opposed to the originally planned Q1 start.

Feb. 28

Swiss biotech ObsEva announced plans to shut down completely and terminate all its employees. The troubled clinical-stage firm focused on women’s health had as few as 15 employees, according to various online trackers.

Feb. 27

Perrigo disclosed in its 2023 fourth-quarter financial report that it was cutting about 6% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan. The company currently employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide, according to its website, meaning that more than 500 workers will lose their jobs.

Feb. 26

Denali Therapeutics is laying off an unidentified number of employees, according to a Fierce Biotech report on Monday. This comes after a Phase II trial of a Denali and Sanofi-partnered ALS candidate did not reach its primary endpoint in Phase II, which was disclosed in an SEC document earlier in February. According to Fierce, the exact number of workers affected was not disclosed. However, a Denali spokesperson told the outlet that the layoffs constitute “considerably less” than 10% of its workforce.

Feb. 22

Galapagos NV announced in its full-year results for 2023 that it has “streamlined” its operations and reduced around 100 positions across the board. The company said in a statement that this staff reduction is to “align with the Galapagos’ renewed focus on innovation.” However, no details were given on where the positions were cut or exactly when they occurred. Galapagos is also halting the development of its CD19 CAR-T candidate in refractory systemic lupus erythematosus “for strategic reasons,” the Belgian biotech said.

Feb. 21

Adaptive Biotechnologies has cut 6.7% of its workforce as part of a “strategic review,” Endpoints News reported. The exact number of lost jobs was not disclosed. The company last downsized its workforce in March 2022.

Feb. 20

Ring Therapeutics has eliminated 19 jobs, or nearly 20% of its workforce, according to STAT News. The gene therapy startup, founded by Flagship Pioneering, raised an $86.5 million Series C round less than a year ago.

Feb. 16:

Kenvue is cutting 51 jobs in New Jersey and 84 in California, according to FiercePharma. The former consumer health division of Johnson & Johnson, Kenvue was spun off from the core pharmaceutical business in mid-2023.

Feb. 16:

Sonata Therapeutics has eliminated 21 jobs, or one-third of its approximately 63 employees, STAT News reported Friday, citing social media posts and a company spokesperson. The startup, a combination of two Flagship Pioneering companies, focuses on the role of cellular microenvironments in causing disease.

Feb. 15:

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals announced plans to cut at least 25% of its workforce this quarter after the company failed to find a buyer, Fierce Biotech reported. The Canadian biotech firm is trimming its drug pipeline, eliminating work on its AUR200 compound for B-cell mediated autoimmune conditions and its AUR300 M2 macrophage regulator.

Feb. 14:

Catalent has reduced its headcount by an additional 300 in the 2023 fourth quarter as part of an ongoing restructuring effort, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing. This followed a Dec. 8 announcement that Catalent had reduced its workforce by 1,100 to that date. Catalent is in the process of being acquired by Novo Nordisk for $16.5 billion.

Feb. 13:

LianBio is laying off more than 50 full-time employees, or half of its current workforce, as the company begins to wind down its operations, according to a Feb. 13 LianBio press release. The Chinese biotech will voluntarily delist from the Nasdaq around March 18 and expects to dissolve by 2027, the company said.

Feb. 9:

Roche will be cutting 345 jobs, according to the Swiss business news site Muula. According to the Muula report, the layoffs affect the Basel-based pharma’s product development division and account for 6% of the workforce in this division. A Roche spokesperson told Reuters that the job cuts would actually be fewer than 345 but did not give an exact figure.

Feb. 9:

Sandoz will be shutting down one of its sites in North Carolina and axing 213 positions along with it, according to the WARN summary issued by the state. The site in question is Eon Labs, a generic manufacturer based in Wilson. A Sandoz spokesperson told Fierce Pharma that the site is closed due to “price erosion” in the generics sector. Sandoz acquired Eon Labs in 2005 and subsequently folded it into its generics division.

Feb. 9:

Synlogic will be cutting 90% of its staff, including CEO Aoife Brennan. The layoffs come as the company decides to halt any future work in its Synpheny-3 study on its treatment candidate SYNB1934 (labafenogene marselecobac) for phenylketonuria.

According to a company release, Synlogic is halting the trial due to the findings of an independent data monitoring committee that the trial would not meet its primary endpoint. The biotech is now working with clinical trial sites to execute the discontinuation while the board will “evaluate strategic options” for the company, the release stated. These options may include an acquisition, merger, sale of its assets, dissolution or reverse merger, among other possibilities.

Feb. 6:

Rallybio Corporation is laying off nearly half of its workforce—19 people—in a bid to extend its cash runway into 2026, the New Haven–based biopharma announced Tuesday. According to the announcement, Rallybio will now prioritize development of two Phase II candidates, a monoclonal antibody to prevent fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia, and an injected inhibitor designed to treat patients with complement-mediated diseases.

January

Jan. 31:

After struggling as a pandemic player, Novavax last year embarked on a company transformation. Part of that overhaul will involve a global workforce reduction of approximately 12%, the company announced on Wednesday. The move follows Novavax’s May 2023 decision to cut 25% of its workforce. Once the layoffs are complete, the company expects to have 30% fewer employees than it did at the end of the first quarter in 2023, according to the press release.

According to Novavax, the transition will allow the company to bring its COVID-19-influenza combination vaccine into Phase III. President and CEO John C. Jacobs said Novavax is “purposefully focusing only on the critical activities needed to achieve our objectives and strengthen the financial performance of the Company.”

Jan 30:

2seventy Bio is making some significant changes. The company will sell its research and development pipeline to Regeneron and cut 55 staff members, around 45% of its remaining personnel, Endpoints News reported Tuesday. Regeneron will acquire all of 2seventy Bio’s R&D infrastructure and employees, including 160 people, as well as CSO Philip Gregory, who will be the head of Regeneron’s new cell medicines unit, according to Endpoints. The deal will see Regeneron pay $5 million upfront to 2seventy Bio, along with a single milestone payment and eventual royalty payments. According to Endpoints, the biotech will now focus on commercializing a CAR-T cell, Abecma, developed with BMS. Meanwhile, 2seventybio CEO Nick Leschly will become board chairman, while COO Chip Baird will assume the CEO post.

Jan. 29:

Cell therapy biotech Catamaran Bio is ceasing operations, according to a post by CEO Alvin Shih on LinkedIn. Shih said the “difficult decision” has been made to suspend day-to-day operations while the company looks to “pursue strategic options.” He said the company still believes in its allogenic therapeutics but noted the challenging state of the financing environment for early-stage companies in the cell therapy arena. Catamaran will seek strategic partners for its CAR NK cell therapy candidates, Endpoints News reported. The company had 19 employees as of Monday, Shih told Endpoints, adding that a “handful” will stay on for a transition period.

Jan. 29:

Big pharma giveth and big pharma taketh away. Fifteen months after inking a lucrative licensing an R&D collaboration with Roche focused on its HB-700 KRAS program, Hookipa Pharma revealed Monday that the Swiss pharma had terminated the agreement. In the same business update, Hookipa announced it will cut approximately 30% of its workforce in a cost-saving initiative. The New York and Vienna–based company said it plans to submit an Investigational New Drug application for HB-700 in the first quarter of this year and will begin the search for a new collaboration partner. Separately, Hookipa will pause development on prostate cancer asset HB-300 and most preclinical research activities, according to the business update.

Jan. 29:

Pfizer’s cost-cutting campaign continues as the company plans to lay off 52 employees at a facility in South San Francisco, Fierce Pharma reported Monday, citing a recent WARN alert. The layoffs are to take effect in mid-February. According to Fierce, the address listed on the WARN report matches the former headquarters of Global Blood Therapeutics, which Pfizer acquired in 2022 for $5.4 billion. Pfizer launched a sweeping cost-cutting initiative in October 2023, aiming to generate $3.5 billion in savings through 2024 as it weathers a steep decline in sales of its COVID-19 products. Since then, the move has affected employees in Groton, Connecticut; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Kent, U.K.

Jan. 26:

Boston–based programmable RNA startup Strand Therapeutics has laid off around 18% of its staff, Endpoints News reported Friday. The layoffs affect 19 of Strand’s 108 employees who worked on its earliest stage programs, the company told Endpoints.

“We’re moving from platform to pipeline,” Strand CEO Jake Becraft told the publication. “Some of the tools we had been building over the last year or two, even though successful in the research, are not going to be needed in those drug products.”

This news follows Strand’s announcement on Monday that the FDA has cleared a Phase I trial for STX-001, an mRNA-based cancer therapy that triggers production of the inflammatory protein IL-12 for an extended period of time directly into the tumor microenvironment.

Jan. 22:

Stamford, CT-based Cara Therapeutics will lay off about half of its employees, the company announced on Monday, including CSO Frédérique Menzaghi. The move comes hand in hand with the shuttering of its Phase III chronic kidney disease program and is expected to extend Cara’s cash runway into 2026. The biotech—which had 106 employees as of March 2023, Endpoints News reported—will now shift its focus to investigating difelikefalin in patients with the neuropathic disorder notalgia paresthetica (NP) after oral difelikefalin failed to show meaningful clinical benefit in patients with atopic dermatitis.

Jan. 18:

Ikena Oncology is laying off approximately 35% of its workforce as part of “an organizational streamlining that allows for the reallocation of resources from exploratory research and discovery towards the ongoing targeted oncology clinical programs,” the company announced Thursday. According to an SEC filing, about 20 employees will be let go from the Boston–based company, with 37 remaining. The filing also notes that on January 17, Bristol Myers Squibb notified Ikena that it would not continue a collaboration the two companies had around two drug candidates. In its announcement, Ikena said it will now focus exclusively on its two lead, clinical-stage oncology candidates, and that its cash runway extends into the second half of 2026.

Jan. 18:

PMV Pharmaceuticals is laying off approximately 30% of its staff in order to extend its cash runway to the end of 2026, the company announced Thursday. According to its LinkedIn page, the New Jersey–based company has between 51-200 employees. PMV said its priority is development of its candidate PC14586, a small molecule p53 reactivator now in clinical trials to treat solid tumors with a specific mutation.

Jan. 17:

Bayer unveiled a new operating model on Wednesday that will involve an unspecified number of layoffs. Barbara Gansewendt, chairwoman of the company's Group Executives’ Committee, said in a statement that the move “will come at the expense of many managerial employees.” As of the end of last year, Bayer had 101,000 employees worldwide.

Jan. 17:

Lonza will cut 218 jobs at its Hayward, California site, according to a WARN report. The company reported that it is closing its manufacturing facility there. The layoffs will take effect Feb. 2, with the plant closing in the first quarter of 2025, a company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma.

Jan. 16:

Dewpoint Therapeutics is cutting approximately 20 positions, or 15% of its staff, as a couple of pharma collaborations fell through, CEO Ameet Nathwani told STAT News. The move is intended to free up cash to onboard new hires who will focus on growing the company’s AI platforms and bringing its first drugs into clinical trials, according to STAT.

Jan. 16:

Allakos, Inc. is ending work on its candidate lirentelimab after disappointing Phase II results in atopic dermatitis and chronic spontaneous urticaria and laying off about 50% of its workforce, the company announced Tuesday. The San Carlos, California–based company has 123 employees, according to GlobalData. Allakos said the restructuring will extend its cash runway into 2026 and that it will now focus on its monoclonal antibody AK006, which was engineered to inhibit mast cells and is now in Phase I testing in healthy volunteers.

Jan. 9:

C4 Therapeutics will lay off about 30% of its staff, or 45 people, in a bid to extend its cash runway into 2027, the company announced Tuesday. The company said it will prioritize development of its clinical-stage candidates CFT7455, CFT1946 and CFT8919, all of which are aimed at treating cancers. “Our strengthened balance sheet, coupled with cost savings from our restructuring, provide sufficient runway to execute through and beyond critical milestones across the portfolio,” said Andrew Hirsch, C4 president and CEO, in the company’s announcement.

Jan. 8:

German immuno-oncology company Affimed is cutting its headcount by up to half, it announced Monday. The company said the restructuring will direct all of its resources into its clinical-stage programs and extend its cash runway into 2025. Affimed announced last week that it is selling its subsidiary AbCheck. As of the end of March 2023, Affimed had 219 full-time employees, the company stated in an annual report.

Affimed CEO Adi Hoess, who has held the position for 13 years, will step down effective Jan. 15, according to the announcement, and Chief Medical Officer Andreas Harstrick will serve as interim CEO.

Jan. 5:

Senti Biosciences will lay off about 37% of its workforce, the South San Francisco–based company announced on Friday. Senti, which recently received Investigational New Drug approval from the FDA for its cell-based treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, said in the announcement that it will focus its resources on that candidate and on developing a treatment for a form of hepatocellular carcinoma. It expects that its cash runway will now be extended into the first quarter of next year.

According to its LinkedIn page, Senti has between 51–200 employees.

Jan. 5:

Allogene Therapeutics will cut nearly a quarter of its workforce as it shifts focus to developing its blood cancer therapy, Reuters reported Friday. The South San Francisco–based company recently announced it no longer focus on two studies testing another blood cancer therapy Cema-Cel, according to Reuters. Allogene had 361 employees as of February 2023.

Jan. 4:

Intellia Therapeutics is laying off approximately 15% of its workforce and pausing select exploratory research-stage programs, the gene editing company announced Thursday. The cuts will take place across all departments, a company representative told Endpoints News, and “won’t impact its lead programs and candidates.”

Intellia made the announcement in a press release highlighting the company’s three-year strategic priorities and 2024 key milestones, which include dosing the first patient in the MAGNITUDE trial of NTLA-2001 in ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy in Q1 of this year and preparing for the Phase III study of NTLA-2001 in ATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy.

As of Feb. 17, 2023, Intellia had 598 full-time employees, 471 of whom were primarily working in R&D, according to an SEC filing.

Jan. 4:

Thermo Fisher Scientific is closing its site in Petaluma, Calif., and will part with 74 of the facility’s employees, according to a WARN notice, Endpoints News reported. Thermo Fisher’s 10-year lease at the 89,649-square-foot facility—which makes pipette tips, microcentrifuge tubes and racks—expires in July, according to the North Bay Business Journal.

“Decisions that impact colleagues and their families are never taken lightly," a company spokesperson told San Francisco Business Times in an email. "All impacted colleagues will receive job transition support to aid them in finding new opportunities.”

Jan. 4:

Aera Therapeutics, which launched in February 2023 with $193 million in combined Series A and Series B funds to “enable and advance the next generation of transformative genetic medicines,” has laid off 25% of its staff, STAT News reported.

In a statement, spokesman Dan Budwick blamed a difficult biotech funding environment for the cuts. “Although Aera remains in a strong cash position today, given the current biotech funding environment, we have chosen to take steps to focus our strategy and investments on the development of our novel delivery platforms, thereby further extending our cash runway,” he said, according to STAT.

Founded by world-renowned scientist Feng Zhang, Aera is attempting to deliver CRISPR enzymes and other gene-editing or gene-modulation tools to specific cells and organs in the body.

Jan. 1:

On Dec. 22, 2023, AlloVir announced it would discontinue its three Phase III studies of posoleucel, an investigational T cell therapy, after DSMB futility analyses concluded the trials were unlikely to meet their primary endpoints. The Waltham, Mass.–based company has now revealed it will part ways with approximately 95% of its staff “in order to reduce costs and preserve capital,” according to a WARN report dated Jan. 1. The layoffs will primarily take place during the first quarter of this year. The company had 114 employees as of Sept. 30, 2023, according to an SEC filing.

December

Dec. 19:

Following the Phase II failure of its lead asset last month, Aclaris Therapeutics is laying off 46% of its workforce, the company announced Tuesday. The company will cease development of zunsemetinib (ATI-450) for immuno-inflammatory disease indications after the failure but will explore its use in some cancers, according to the announcement, along with continuing to develop other candidates in its pipeline.

The Pennsylvania-based Aclaris had 100 employees as of the end of 2022, according to an SEC filing.

Dec. 19:

Immunotherapy company Asher Bio has laid off 34 people—60% of its workforce—and is narrowing its focus to a single drug candidate, Fierce Biotech reported Tuesday. That asset, AB248, is now in Phase I testing for solid tumors in combination with Keytruda.

The South San Francisco–based Asher emerged from stealth in 2021 and announced $108 million in Series B financing later that year.

Dec. 18:

Atara Biotherapeutics is laying off 73 employees in Thousand Oaks, California, according to a WARN notice reported by Endnotes News on Monday. The immunotherapy company had announced plans on November 1 to reduce its workforce by approximately 30%; a week later, its stock price plunged following the announcement that a Phase II trial of its candidate for multiple sclerosis had failed.

Dec. 14:

Following the Phase II failure of its investigational treatment for a group of rare genetic disorders, Reneo Pharmaceuticals will lay off 70% of its workforce, the company announced Thursday. According to an SEC filing, as of March 2023 Reneo had 48 employees, 36 of them full-time.

Reneo had been testing a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARδ) agonist called mavodelpar in people with metabolic disorders known as primary mitochondrial myopathies, but the therapy met neither its primary nor its secondary endpoints. The company is now discontinuing development of mavodelpar. Its stock price fell by 87% following the news, Fierce Biotech reported.

Dec. 13:

Immunology company Vir Biotechnology will lay off 12% of its workforce—approximately 75 positions—and shutter its R&D facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, and Portland, Oregon, next year, the company announced Wednesday. “While these decisions are difficult, they will enable us to prioritize investment in the clinical execution of our chronic hepatitis delta and chronic hepatitis B programs, as well as on broadening the long-term applicability of our world-class monoclonal antibody platform beyond infectious diseases to autoimmune diseases and oncology,” said Vir CEO Marianne De Backer in the company’s statement.

Vir had entered into a research and development partnership with GSK in April 2020 for COVID-19. But the companies’ Sotrovimab treatment lost FDA authorization two years later, and in February of this year, GSK stepped back from the coronavirus portion of the partnership while staying engaged with Vir on the development of a new flu shot and other respiratory virus programs. In July of this year, the flu vaccine candidate failed a Phase II trial.

Dec. 13:

Xellia Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer of anti-infective treatments and critical care therapies owned by Novo Holdings, will lay off 80 employees at its Bedford, Ohio, plant, according to a WARN notice reported by Fierce Pharma. Fierce notes that the plant, located just outside Cleveland, was reopened in 2021 after a change of ownership and a $200 million revamp. The site had about 300 employees at the time.

Dec. 11:

Altamira Therapeutics has reduced its headcount by about 25% as part of a “streamlining” process, the company announced yesterday. Altamira has been shedding what it calls its legacy assets as it aims to focus exclusively on RNA delivery. The Bermuda-based company has between 11 and 50 employees, according to its LinkedIn page.

Dec. 8:

Catalent Pharma Solutions has cut 1,100 jobs this year, the company revealed in an annual report released Friday. The cuts, made mostly in the biologics and corporate divisions, came amid revenue losses of $539 million.

Dec. 7:

Ferring Pharmaceuticals will lay off 55 employees in Minnesota and 79 in New Jersey in the coming months, according to WARN notices and reporting by KSTP-TV. A company spokesperson told the station that the Roseville, Minnesota, cuts affect about a quarter of positions at that site.

Dec. 5:

IGM Biosciences is laying off approximately 22% of its employees, the company announced Tuesday. The restructuring will extend the biotech’s cash runway into 2026 as it prioritizes candidates for colorectal cancer and autoimmune disease, according to the announcement, while discontinuing programs in hematologic oncology and targeted cytokine products.

“Although we are very encouraged by the clinical and preclinical data that we have generated for the programs we are halting, given the difficult conditions in the capital markets for our industry, we have decided to focus our capital resources on those opportunities that we believe have the most potential to produce significant near-term value,” said IGM CEO Fred Schwarzer in the company’s statement.

Dec. 5:

ReNAgade Therapeutics, which launched in May with $300 in Series A funding, is now laying off 10% of its staff, Fierce Biotech reported Tuesday. The company had about 100 employees at its launch, Fierce reported. While the company has not revealed details about its pipeline, it describes its mission as “to unlock the potential for RNA medicines to treat disease anywhere in the body.”

Dec. 4:

Travere Therapeutics will reduce its workforce by about 20% in an effort to extend its cash runway into 2028, the company announced Monday. The San Diego–based biopharma has 462 employees, according to Global Data.

Travere tied the layoffs to the approval process and launch of Filspari (sparsentan), which has accelerated approval for IgA nephropathy and which the company has been testing for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). “Unfortunately, there is uncertainty around a regulatory path forward for FSGS. While we intend to continue to engage with FDA on a way forward for the more than 40,000 people living with FSGS in the U.S., we must at the same time prioritize our operating expenses,” said Eric Dube, president and CEO of Travere, in the company’s statement.