Pharmaceutical Industry Faces Widespread Layoffs Amid Strategic Shifts

The pharmaceutical and biotech sectors are experiencing a wave of workforce reductions and strategic realignments as companies adapt to challenging market conditions and reprioritize their pipelines.

Major Players Announce Significant Staff Cuts

Novartis is laying off 427 employees at its U.S. headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey, with the cuts taking place from June to October. This follows the company's December 2024 decision to let go of 330 employees as part of closing sites in Germany and Boston acquired from MorphoSys.

Bristol Myers Squibb continues its cost-cutting initiative, announcing an additional $2 billion in savings planned through 2027. The company is reducing its New Jersey workforce by 67 employees, with layoffs occurring from April through December. BMS had previously announced plans to eliminate about 2,200 jobs by the end of 2024 as part of a bid to generate approximately $1.5 billion in cost savings through 2025.

Biogen confirmed it will lay off an undisclosed number of employees from its research unit. The cuts come as Biogen's stock languishes at a five-year low and are part of the company's efforts to "reinvigorate" its drug discovery operations, according to a spokesperson.

Smaller Biotechs Face Dramatic Workforce Reductions

Leap Therapeutics announced it will cut 75% of its staff over the next two months, including the departures of its chief operating officer and chief medical officer. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech is winding down research and development activities and exploring strategic options that could include a sale. This follows a previous 50% workforce reduction announced in May.

IGM Biosciences is laying off 73% of its workforce and stopping development of two autoimmune drug candidates. The cuts will affect 100 employees effective March 10, leaving the company with 37 employees. IGM is halting work on imvotamab and IGM-2644, bispecific antibody T cell engagers for autoimmune diseases.

Atara Biotherapeutics disclosed it will cut about 50% of its workforce following the FDA's rejection of its T cell therapy for a transplant-related blood cancer. The layoffs are expected to be mostly complete by June and could leave the company with around 80 employees.

Strategic Shifts and Pipeline Reprioritization

Intellia Therapeutics announced a reorganization program that includes reducing its workforce by around 27%, affecting approximately 142 employees. The company will focus its efforts on high-value programs, specifically its investigational gene editors NTLA-2002 for hereditary angioedema and nexiguran ziclumeran for transthyretin amyloidosis.

Galapagos revealed plans to split into two entities by mid-2025 and cut 40% of its workforce, affecting about 300 employees across its European operations. The company will close its site in France and decrease staff in Belgium. The reorganization will result in a yet-to-be-named innovative medicines specialist and a cell therapy company that will inherit the Galapagos name.

CytomX Therapeutics will cut about 40% of its employees, affecting 46 people, to direct capital resources to its clinical programs. The company's top strategic objective for 2025 is the development of CX-2051, an antibody-drug conjugate being developed initially for advanced metastatic colorectal cancer.

As the pharmaceutical industry continues to navigate challenging market conditions and evolving strategic priorities, further workforce reductions and organizational changes are likely to occur throughout 2025.