Follow along as BioSpace tracks job cuts and restructuring initiatives.
Below is a look at which companies are tightening their belts and cutting staff in 2026, as well as a quick glance at overall data from 2025. For all of last year’s tracker entries, please visit the 2025 recap article.
To see which biopharmas laid off employees in the years prior to 2025, check out our 2023 and 2024 articles.
Know about a layoff happening in biopharma? Feel free to contact Angela Gabriel at angela.gabriel@biospace.com.
Alltrna
March 6
In a bid to move quickly to clinical development, Alltrna is letting go of 19 employees, representing around 35% of its current headcount. The move, a company spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech on March 5, will help “position Alltrna for success as we accelerate toward the clinic with our first engineered tRNA drug candidate.”
Alltrna will have 36 employees left after the layoffs, Fierce reported.
Based in Massachusetts and founded by Flagship Pioneering, Alltrna is working on tRNA-based medicines, which, according to its website, have the potential to treat all diseases caused by a premature termination codon. Its most mature program addresses genetic liver diseases including phenylketonuria and urea cycle disorders.
The biotech last laid staff off in August 2025, parting ways with eight employees as it similarly sought to realign resources as it approached the clinic.
Bayer
March 5
With its annual report now out, Bayer’s 2025 cuts have come into focus. The Germany-based pharma shed about 4,700 employees, dropping from 92,815 staffers on Dec. 31, 2024, to 88,078 at the end of last year. The bulk of the cuts happened in the first nine months, as the company’s Q4 employee count (88,078) was down by around 400 compared to Q3 (88,502).
The slowed pace of layoffs was expected. During a Q3 earnings call in November, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said that moving forward, he anticipated that cuts would continue but described them as “incremental.”
The pharma began significantly downsizing its workforce in early 2024, after Anderson noted disappointment in business performance and the company debuted a new operating model that included a restructuring initiative.
According to the 2025 annual report, last year Bayer’s personnel expenses dropped by €726 million, or about $842 million. The average number of employees dropped year over year in every functional area: production (-3,559), marketing and distribution (-1,518), research and development (-800) and general administration (-553).
EveryONE Medicines
March 5
EveryONE Medicines has decided to close up shop. An anonymous source told Endpoints News that the biotech found the FDA’s recent bespoke framework for personalized medicines insufficient and challenging to work with to commercialize treatments for exceedingly small patient populations, the outlet reported March 3.
BioSpace has reached out to EveryONE for comment.
The regulator last week released draft guidance designed to help drugmakers that are advancing personalized genetic medicines, potentially clearing an easier path to market. Under these new recommendations, the FDA has suggested that companies should clearly elucidate the underlying biologic cause of a disease and develop their drug candidate to target this pathway.
Theravance Biopharma
March 4
Theravance Biopharma is winding down its R&D operations and laying off half of its staff in an effort to drastically stanch its spending after the disappointing outcome of its Phase 3 CYPRESS study in neurogenic orthostatic hypotension in patients with multiple system atrophy.
The sweeping restructuring will take place over the next two months, the biotech announced in a March 3 release, adding that it expects to absorb around $5 million to $7 million in one-time costs, linked primarily to severance payments. Theravance estimates that its cost-cutting measures will lower operating expenses by 60% relative to 2025 levels, generating around $60 million to $70 million of annualized cash flow starting in the third quarter.
CYPRESS tested Therarvance’s norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor ampreloxetine and found that the drug candidate failed to significantly hypotension in patients. The drug also failed key secondary endpoints including blood pressure, heart rate and norepinephrine levels.
BioAtla
March 3
As it explores strategic options, San Diego–based BioAtla is cutting about 70% of its workforce, retaining only those employees essential to its strategic review.
The news, announced March 2, comes less than a year after BioAtla cut 30% of its staff, a move meant to help the business extend its runway into the first half of 2026, according to a March 2025 SEC filing. The biotech, which develops biologic antibody therapeutics to treat solid tumors, was also looking to optimize expenses “to support development of its prioritized programs and set the Company up for long-term success.”
Strategic options the company is exploring include selling its five preclinical-stage and four clinical-stage assets as well as striking licensing transactions or strategic partnerships, according to the announcement.
Merck
March 2
Merck is trimming its Durham, North Carolina, headcount by 154 employees: 147 staff will be laid off from the pharma’s site on Old Oxford Road, while seven workers will be let go from the Rodolphe Street location, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act posting for the state.
The layoffs follow Merck’s decision to stop using the Old Oxford Road facility to produce its Gardasil and Gardasil 9 vaccines “because of the recent worldwide reduction in demand for the product,” according to the pharma’s WARN letter sent to state authorities, according to reporting from Business North Carolina. Merck opened the $1-billion facility in March 2025.
The pharma last whittled down its workforce in July 2025, announcing at the time that it would lay off around 6,000 employees, or around 8% of its global headcount. Days earlier, Merck revealed that it would lower cash burn by $3 billion through 2027 in an effort to fund the launches of more than 20 products.
Disc Medicine
March 2
After the surprising rejection of its bitopertin for a rare blood disorder, Disc Medicine is implementing a restructuring initiative that will leave around 20% of its employees jobless, the biotech revealed in a Feb. 26 SEC document. This change, according to the securities filing, will help “better align the Company’s workforce with its near-term strategic priorities.”
Operations primarily involved in commercial and supportive functions will be hit hard, Disc said, adding that it will complete the layoffs in the second quarter. Disc will absorb around $2 million in one-time costs in accordance with the restructuring initiative.
Disc had proposed the use of bitopertin to treat erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare disorder that manifests as extreme and painful sensitivity to sunlight. Analysts found the denial to be unexpected, given that bitopertin in October 2025 received the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, a ticket granted to companies that align with certain national priorities and which can shorten the review period from the typical 10-12 months to 1-2 months.
In December last year, however, reports circulated that the FDA’s biologics chief Vinay Prasad was skeptical of bitopertin.
Viatris
Feb. 26
Following a strategic review initiated in 2025 and shortly after a fire at a manufacturing facility in India, Viatris has announced a restructuring that involves laying off up to 10% of its global workforce. The company expects to primarily complete the cuts within the next three years.
Headquartered in the U.S. with global centers in Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Hyderabad, India, Viatris operates in more than 165 countries and territories and has more than 30,000 employees, according to a November SEC filing. That means the layoffs could impact up to 3,000 people across multiple departments that the company identified in its announcement, including its research and development, manufacturing and commercial teams.
Viatris is projecting the cuts’ potential savings will land between $600 million and $700 million. Most of those savings should improve operating cash flow, according to the company.
In other February news, the mid-February fire affected a service area at Viatris’ oral solid dose manufacturing facility in Nashik, India, according to the announcement. The company has temporarily suspended manufacturing at the site but expects to start back up in April.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Feb. 23
The cuts keep on coming at Bristol Myers Squibb, which plans to trim its Lawrenceville, New Jersey headcount by 247, according to a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alert for the state. The layoffs will run from May 21 through the end of the year.
BMS has two offices in Lawrenceville: its corporate headquarters and a campus for R&D, product development, commercialization and supply. It is unclear if both sides will be affected.
The pharma has enacted several rounds of layoffs over the past year, many of which have affected its New Jersey workforce. In February last year, for instance, two cycles of headcount reductions left 290 employees jobless, which the company followed by laying off 516 more in May that year.
In June 2025, 68 more New Jersey workers were laid off and were soon followed by 282 others in September that year.
Catalent
Feb. 23
Contract manufacturer Catalent is also continuing to trim down its workforce, this time putting 93 jobs at its Harmans, Maryland location on the chopping block. A Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) posting for the state noted that the layoffs will take effect on March 19.
Catalent last retrenched staff in November last year, letting go of 77 people from its gene therapy operations in Maryland. A few months earlier, in August, the company terminated 350 employees, likewise from its gene therapy unit, Fierce Pharma reported at the time. The layoffs, a spokesperson told Fierce, were “due to an unexpected shift in demand from a large customer.” The representative didn’t identify this customer.
These layoffs come after Catalent was completely absorbed by Danish giant Novo Nordisk in late 2024. The acquisition, announced February that year, was valued at $16.5 billion.
Concerto Biosciences
Feb. 18
An unspecified number of employees at Concerto Biosciences will lose their jobs as the company changes its business focus, according to a statement a spokesperson sent to BioSpace via email. The representative declined to specify how many people would be affected or when the layoffs will take effect.
“Concerto has made a strategic decision to focus new discovery and development work on consumer products and applications,” the statement read. “As part of this strategic shift, we have reorganized and reduced the size of our team to better align our resources with the consumer focus.”
Concerto develops medicines based on microbes. In October 2025, the biotech’s atopic dermatitis candidate ENS-002—which contains three skin-derived and non-pathogenic bacterial strains—led to improvements in eczema symptoms and suppressed levels of Staphylococcus aureus on the skin.
Faraday Pharmaceuticals
Feb. 18
Seattle-based Faraday Pharmaceuticals is winding down operations, the company announced on its website. It is unclear how many people will lose their jobs due to this move, but the biotech’s LinkedIn page has nine associated members listed.
CEO Steve Hill revealed on his own LinkedIn profile that Faraday’s lead asset FDY-5301, failed a Phase 3 study in ST-elevation myocardial infarction late last year. The drug, a proprietary formulation of sodium iodide, neutralizes reactive oxygen species in the body, in turn suppressing ischemia injuries, according to the company’s website.
In the late-stage study, FDY-5301 failed to significantly lower the frequency of cardiovascular mortality or heart failure versus placebo.
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical
Feb. 13
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical is rolling out a strategic restructuring initiative to reduce cash burn, in the process parting ways with 10% of its employees, or approximately 130 people, according to a Feb. 12 news release. The layoffs have already begun and are expected to be “substantially completed” in the first half of this year, the biotech said in an SEC filing.
The move, according to Ultragenyx, will help keep it on track as it works toward profitability in 2027. The company expects the restructuring to translate into at least a 15% decrease in R&D and general expenses in 2027 compared with 2025 levels, according to the press announcement. Ultragenyx nevertheless expects to absorb $50 million in expenses to carry out the realignment initiative.
Late last year, Ultragenyx reported that its investigational antibody setrusumab, also called UX143, failed to significantly lower the rate of fractures in two Phase 3 osteogenesis imperfecta studies, wiping some $1 billion in the biotech’s value in the readout’s aftermath. The company at the time mentioned the possibility of expense reduction measures, though it did not provide details.
Seres Therapeutics
Feb. 12
Seres Therapeutics will lay off about 30% of its workforce as part of a pipeline refocusing initiative. The move, along with other cost cuts, should extend the company’s cash runway through the third quarter, the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based biotech announced today.
Seres had 103 employees as of Dec. 31, 2024, according to its most recent annual report. That means the layoffs could affect around 31 staffers.
The biotech is pausing additional investment in a Phase 2 study for SER-155 in patients undergoing allo-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and shifting operational focus to high-value, earlier-stage pipeline programs, according to the press release. However, it will continue seeking funding for the SER-155 study.
Seres said that the SER-155 program had advanced its understanding of how microbes in the gastrointestinal tract modulate pathways at the mucosal barrier-immune interface associated with inflammatory and immune-related diseases. As a result, the company will now prioritize advancing programs including SER-603, which targets inflammatory and immune indications such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and immune checkpoint related enterocolitis (irEC).
Genentech
Feb. 9
Last year, Roche subsidiary Genentech terminated more posts across its operations than had previously been thought. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alert from the state of California, posted Feb. 4, revealed that 141 employees were laid off across the pharma’s operations.
Roche, however, filed the WARN notice in June last year, and the layoffs took effect in August that year. In a statement to Fierce Biotech on Feb. 6, a spokesperson for the company said that the delay in posting was due to a glitch in the system. The WARN posting also listed that the headcount reduction was at Genentech’s DNA Way, South San Francisco, but the spokesperson clarified that staff across various departments and sites were affected.
Since these layoffs took effect in August, Genentech has enacted another round of workforce cuts, affecting 118 people across its South San Francisco location.
Charles River Laboratories
Feb. 6
Contract researcher and manufacturer Charles River Laboratories is shutting down a cell therapy site in Hanover, Maryland, Endpoints News confirmed with a company spokesperson on Feb. 5. The closure will affect 20 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act posting for the state.
The facility was “not a strategic fit” for Charles River, the spokesperson told Endpoints, which led to the decision to close it down. Client work at the site will be moved to the company’s other facilities, which the group plans to complete by the end of the second quarter. The employee terminations will take effect on March 23, 2026.
Charles River did a similar staff clean-up early last year. Its most recent cycle of layoffs, according to a BioSpace tally, were in April 2025, which affected 13 people in Maryland. In February that year, the company downsized its cell and gene therapy operations in Tennessee, laying off an unspecified number of workers. A few weeks earlier, Charles River shut down a facility in North Carolina, leaving 31 employees jobless.
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Feb. 6
Thermo Fisher Scientific, a manufacturing and research services provider, is winding down operations at its production plant in Franklin, Massachusetts, Endpoints News confirmed Feb. 5 with a company spokesperson. The shutdown will leave 103 people unemployed, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act alert.
The site closure reflects changes in “current customer demands,” the spokesperson explained, adding that affected staff will be moved to other Thermo Fisher facilities in the state. The layoffs will run from Dec. 31, 2026 through Dec. 31, 2027.
Thermo Fisher likewise trimmed its headcount in early 2025, parting ways with 300 employees across its Cambridge and Plainville sites in Massachusetts. In November 2024, the company also terminated 160 staff from these two locations, as well as from Lexington.
GSK
Feb. 3
Up to 350 people across GSK’s U.S. and U.K. workforces could lose their jobs as the pharma reorients its investments with its priorities, according to a Feb. 2 report from Fierce Biotech, which confirmed the layoffs with a company spokesperson.
The layoffs are expected to affect fewer than 70 individuals in the US, and fewer than 50 in the UK, according to Fierce.
“We’re investing in technology to maximize our scientific capabilities and drive productivity, and in our key R&D sites over the next five years to accelerate drug discovery and research,” the spokesperson told the outlet, noting that alongside these investments, GSK is aligning its resources with these priorities “and making sure we have the right people in the right teams.”
The final number of affected employees can still change, the spokesperson said.
GSK’s previous major round of layoffs came in July 2025, which left 150 employees from its Cambridge, Massachusetts site jobless. That same month, the pharma also trimmed its global R&D headcount. The exact number of employees terminated was not disclosed, though Fierce at the time reported that only a “very limited” number of posts were removed. GSK again reduced its workforce in October 2025, removing eight employees from its San Francisco, California campus.
IO Biotech
Feb. 2
IO Biotech is enacting a “significant reduction” in its workforce as part of a broader “cost-containment and cash conservation effort,” according to a Jan. 30 news release. In an SEC document filed the same day, IO revealed that it has also “notified” chief medical officer Qasim Ahmad that his tenure would end effective Feb. 15.
The Danish biotech, which has operations in New York and Maryland, did not specify how many employees will be let go. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification postings were not posted for these areas. As of June 30, 2025, IO had 78 full-time employees, a number it trimmed in September that year after laying off 34 workers.
As part of its restructuring initiative, IO expects to absorb around $2.4 million to $2.6 million in one-time costs, primarily due to severance fees and other employee benefits, according to its regulatory filing. The biotech did not indicate how much it expects to save or when the terminations will take effect, noting only that these staff cuts will help it explore strategic alternatives.
Correction (Feb. 2): This entry has been updated to clarify the number of employees that IO had in September of last year, as well as the language the company used in revealing that its CMO would no longer be with the company.
Bitterroot Bio
Feb. 2
California company Bitterroot Bio is likewise launching a restructuring initiative that will leave an unspecified number of employees jobless—including CEO Pavan Cheruvu, according to his LinkedIn post dated Jan. 29. It remains unclear when these layoffs will take effect and how much the company expects to save from the restructuring.
Bitterroot had previously been working on an investigational immunomodulatory protein called BRB-002, which works by targeting CD47 to modulate macrophages and remove plaques. The asset was being developed for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, for which the biotech launched a Phase IIa study in Australia last June.
Now, however, it appears that Bitterroot is pulling back from this program. In his post, Cheruvu wrote that “even with flawless execution, biology doesn’t always go according to plan,” adding that the company will revert to its “focus on discovery biology and translational research.”
Gilead Sciences
Jan. 29
Gilead’s operations in Oceanside, California, is once again getting hit with staff cuts as the pharma plans to let go of 34 employees at this site, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification posting. The layoffs will take effect on March 27, according to the notice.
The Oceanside location supports Gilead’s clinical manufacturing and process development, according to the company’s website. Last year, the campus endured two layoffs. The first hit came in June 2025 and affected 36 people, with their terminations effective in August. In November that same year, Gilead again pruned Oceanside’s headcount, letting go of 17 employees who were effectively booted earlier this month.
Gilead had another round of layoffs earlier in 2025, with the pharma axing 149 employees in April, affecting scientific and technical staff at its headquarters in Foster City, California.
Takeda
Jan. 19
Takeda is laying off 243 employees across its U.S. operations, an effort that will heavily affect its neuroscience commercialization teams.
The layoffs will impact staff that work remotely, Boston Business Journal reported Jan. 16 after confirming the news with a Takeda spokesperson. Around 190 people working as neuroscience sales specialists will lose their jobs, while the cuts will also affect neuroscience sales representatives and neuroscience district business managers.
Takeda has already filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice with Massachusetts, which the Journal viewed. As of this writing, the state’s online portal for WARN postings lists Takeda’s layoffs affecting three people in Cambridge, with an effective date of Jan. 14. The spokesperson, however, told the Journal that impacted staff were notified on this date, and their actual termination will occur later this year.
The layoffs will also affect employees across several U.S. states, including Texas, California, Ohio and Tennessee, according to the Journal.
The spokesperson told the media outlet the workforce reduction was part of a “strategic decision” to help the company navigate its upcoming loss of exclusivity for Trintellix, a major depressive disorder drug. That decision also includes “reprioritizing resources to prepare for multiple potential new medication launches in the U.S.”
Vedanta Biosciences
Jan. 19
Vedanta Biosciences “significantly” reduced its headcount to maintain progress and focus resources on a Phase III study of oral drug candidate VE303 for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), the company told BioSpace. The biotech did not state how many people it let go. However, an anonymous former employee said Vedanta cut 50% of its staffers and furloughed 45%.
The biotech also laid off staff in August, letting go of 20% of its workforce and likely leaving around 92 employees, based on BioSpace calculations. That means the latest cuts may have affected around 46 people.
For more details, read the article.
Lyra Therapeutics
Jan. 14
After a rocky late-stage road for its rhinosinusitis drug, Lyra Therapeutics has finally decided to throw in the towel and lay off all 28 of its remaining employees.
In a news release on Jan. 12, the Massachusetts biotech announced that it would no longer push forward with LYR-210, a sinonasal implant designed to deliver an anti-inflammatory drug continuously for six months. The asset was being trialed for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). In May 2024, LYR-210 failed the Phase III ENLIGHTEN 1 study, unable to significantly improve nasal obstruction, nasal discharge and pain or pressure, as compared with placebo.
The investigational implant vindicated itself in June last year, however, with a Phase III win in the ENLIGHTEN 2 study. Patients treated with LYR-210 experienced significant improvements in these three cardinal symptoms of CRS.
But Lyra appears to not have enough money to take LYR-210 any further. As of Sept. 30, 2025, the company had $22.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments—only enough to keep the lights on into the third quarter of 2026, according to its Monday release. Following the layoffs, only Lyra’s CEO and chief financial officer will remain with the company as consultants to seek out strategic alternatives.
EMD Serono
Jan. 14
EMD Serono, the U.S. division of Merck KGaA, is parting ways with an undisclosed number of employees, Fierce Biotech reported on Jan. 13, after confirming the news with a company representative. The layoffs will affect research staff at the company’s offices in Durham, North Carolina.
In April last year, Merck KGaA acquired Connecticut-based cancer specialist SpringWorks Therapeutics for $3.4 billion. The acquisition closed in July that year, bringing the desmoid tumor drug Ogsiveo into the Merck KGaA fold. Ogsiveo made $172 million in 2024 and has the potential to expand into other rare cancers, such as ovarian granulosa cell tumors and relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
The company’s latest round of layoffs is part of its efforts to streamline operations after swallowing SpringWorks, the spokesperson told Fierce.
SonomaBio
Jan. 13
SonomaBio is letting go of an undisclosed number of employees in an effort to extend its cash runway through 2027 and potentially into 2028, a company spokesperson has confirmed to BioSpace in an email.
The spokesperson declined to specify how many people would be affected by the workforce reduction, revealing only that staff at its headquarters in San Francisco as well as those in Seattle and working remotely would be impacted. The company has notified all affected employees. Some roles “will transition immediately,” the spokesperson noted, while others will be given “short transition periods,” depending on business needs.
The restructuring push will help reduce cash burn, giving the biotech enough time to expand its Phase I protocol for lead asset SBT-77-7101 in rheumatoid arthritis. Interim first-in-human data in October last year showed that four of six treated patients achieved at least a 50% reduction in the number of swollen and tender joints—“encouraging data,” the spokesperson told BioSpace.
Rampart Bioscience
Jan. 12
Rampart Bioscience has reportedly ended its quest to develop DNA-based therapies that don’t use viral vectors for delivery.
The closure, broken by Endpoints News Jan. 8 after speaking with two former employees, appears to have officially happened the week prior, though no public announcements were made. Rampart also quietly downsized twice last year, one source added. Rampart’s website is no longer responsive, and its LinkedIn page has been taken down.
For more details, read the article.
InflaRx
Jan. 12
InflaRx is cutting approximately 30% of its employees in a bid to streamline its spending and pour more of its resources into its immunology headliner izicopan.
To accompany the layoffs, InflaRx will also pull money from its investigational antibody Gohibic, according to a press announcement Jan. 8. Gohibic was authorized for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients under the FDA’s emergency use pathway. In March last year, InflaRx pulled the plug on a late-stage study of Gohibic in pyoderma gangrenosum, a rare skin disease, after the asset disappointed in a late-stage study.
For more details, read the article.
Tessera Therapeutics
Jan. 8
A month after announcing a partnership with Regeneron to advance its lead gene editor, Tessera Therapeutics has disclosed it will lay off 90 employees. Endpoints News first reported the cuts.
A Tessera spokesperson told Endpoints the organizational changes reflect a pipeline prioritization to advance the Somerville, Massachusetts–based gene editing company’s lead programs in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) and sickle cell disease to the clinic.
The layoffs will include one employee in Colorado and another in Washington, as well as 82 in Somerville, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices in those states. Tessera noted that it expects to start the cuts March 8, and no facilities will close.
Several employees told Endpoints the layoffs will affect about 35% of the workforce. The cuts follow a 17% reduction in 2025 and 13% downsizing in 2024.
On Dec. 1, Tessera announced it had formed a $275 million partnership with Regeneron to advance TSRA-196, Tessera’s in vivo gene editor for AATD. The one-time therapy was created to restore the production of functional AATD, a protein that, under healthy conditions, protects the lungs from autoimmune damage.
Editor’s note: BioSpace updated this entry Jan. 12 to add the number of employees affected in Somerville, which a Massachusetts WARN notice revealed after this entry’s original publication.
Nido Biosciences
Jan. 2
Nido Biosciences will shut down early this year, Endpoints News reported following the biotech’s LinkedIn announcement. The Massachusetts-based company did not state how many employees the closure will affect, but a spokesperson told the media outlet the business had a handful of staffers.
According to Nido, results for a Phase II clinical trial of NIDO-361, its lead candidate for patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, fell short of expectations. With the drug no longer a clinical candidate, the company stated, it will cease operations.
Founded in 2020, Nido launched in 2023 with $109 million in series A, series B and seed financing to develop new small molecules for neurological diseases. Investors included Eli Lilly.
Voyager Therapeutics
Dec. 19
After its partner Novartis cut two programs from an ongoing collaboration, Voyager let 30 employees go, according to reporting from Fierce Biotech. The two companies have been collaborating on producing gene therapy products, without disclosing what indications they were pursuing.
It was not clear how much money Voyager would save with the move or how many employees it would still have afterward. At the end of 2024, Voyager had 172 employees, according to its annual report.
Novartis paid Voyager $100 million upfront to seal the partnership in January 2024, with up to $1.2 billion in milestones on the line. Novartis’ work with Voyager on therapies for Huntington’s disease and spinal muscular atrophy, along with another asset for an undisclosed target, are still ongoing.
For more details, read the article.
Intercept Pharmaceuticals
Dec. 18
Months after withdrawing its only commercial product Ocaliva from the market, Intercept Pharmaceuticals appears to be looking for ways to reduce its cash burn. As part of this savings campaign, the biotech is letting go of 146 employees from its New Jersey campus, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act posting.
The layoffs will start to take effect by end of the year and into the first half of 2026. The staff cuts are expected to be complete by June 30, 2026.
Ocaliva, an oral farnesoid X receptor agonist, was granted accelerated approval in 2016 for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis. The drug has since run into a series of setbacks, including two rejections in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH): one in 2020 and another in 2023. The second rejection forced Intercept to abandon its MASH program entirely.
Then, in September 2024, the FDA flagged “unfavorable trends” in liver transplantation and death in patients treated with the drug—problems that would prompt the agency’s Gastrointestinal Drug Advisory Committee to vote against Ocaliva’s full approval a few days later.
Mythic Therapeutics
Dec. 17
Mythic Therapeutics has come to the end of its potential options. The Boston-based antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer is axing its only clinical trial after failing to secure enough capital to keep going, Endpoints News reported Tuesday.
Mythic “pursued various capital solutions during 2025 to fund its continued operations and despite the promise of MYTX-011 such efforts were not successful,” CEO George Eliades told the publication in an email, adding that the company is now in the process of winding down and selling its assets. For any ADC-interested buyers, Eliades told Endpoints that “several are still available.”
Mythic, which launched in December 2021 with $103 million in series B funds to make “safer and smarter” ADCs, had between 11 and 50 employees, according to its LinkedIn profile.
The company in May reported data from a Phase I trial of MYTX-011 in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, showing a preliminary overall response rate (ORR) of 36% in patients with cMET low tumors, 39% in patients with cMET high tumors and 50% in tumors with EGFR mutations and cMET high/intermediate levels. Response durations of up to 8.9 months were observed.
Geron Corporation
Dec. 12
In a bid to reinvigorate sales of its cancer therapy Rytelo, Geron is letting go of a third of its current headcount and said it will use the savings to strengthen its commercial strategy and execution for the drug. The company currently has around 260 employees, meaning the layoffs will affect around 87 people, according to a Thursday news release.
Rytelo was approved in June 2024 as a first-in-class telomerase inhibitor for lower-risk patients with myelodysplastic syndromes with transfusion-dependent anemia. The drug has struggled in the market, only bringing in $47.2 million in the third quarter—a 3% quarter-on-quarter decline. The company is also studying Rytelo in the Phase III IMpactMF study in relapsed/refractory myelofibrosis.
Geron expects the layoffs to be “substantially complete” early next year, according to its press announcement. The company will incur undisclosed restructuring costs but will start realizing savings from the effort in the first quarter of 2026.
Pfizer
Dec. 12
Pfizer will part ways with more than 200 employees across Switzerland as part of a continuing effort to slow its cash burn, according to a report from Bloomberg on Dec. 10.
After the layoffs, the pharma expects its Switzerland headcount to shrink to around 70 people, down from 300, the publication noted, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Pfizer expects to complete this workforce reduction by the end of the year. In a statement to Bloomberg, a company representative said that the pharma is “streamlining and realigning” resources in an effort to reduce operational complexity.
Since first announcing a sweeping, multi-year cost realignment effort in October 2023, Pfizer has cut roughly 2,000 employees across its global operations. That same year, the company let go of around 850 employees, affecting sites in Connecticut and Michigan, as well as various offices in Europe. In 2024, Pfizer put 700 jobs on the chopping block. The pharma has eliminated some 150 posts so far this year, not counting the Swiss cuts.
Adare Pharma Solutions
Dec. 11
Contract manufacturer Adare Pharma Solutions will part ways with 137 employees as it closes down a production facility in Philadelphia, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act posting. The layoffs will take effect from March 1 through June 30 next year.
In a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a company spokesperson said the decision to close its Philadelphia site was driven by “adverse economic conditions for our clients.”
In August 2024, Adare unveiled plans to move its headquarters to Pennsylvania from New Jersey, prompted by Philadelphia’s $3 million investment in the company. The move, according to the manufacturer, would open at least 115 “new, well-paying jobs” in the area, as well as maintain some 200 existing posts. More than a year later, in October this year, the company announced it had expanded its footprint in Milan, Italy, with a new packaging hall and warehouse.
Valneva
Dec. 1
In an effort to consolidate its operations, Valneva will shutter its site in Nantes, France and concentrate its operations in Lyon, the French biotech said in a Nov. 26 release. Confirming the initiative to Fierce Biotech the same day, a company spokesperson added that the move will leave 30 employees at the Nantes facility jobless.
Valneva was conducting operational and pre-clinical R&D work at Nantes. The site’s shuttering there will not affect any of its early programs, the spokesperson added. Following the Nantes closure, Valneva will relocate its registered office to Lyon and consolidate its R&D activities in Vienna.
It is unclear when the layoffs will take effect and how much they will cost Valneva in severance and other related payments.
Valneva is mainly involved in the development of vaccines. In August, the FDA suspended the approval of its chikungunya shot Ixchiq after detecting “serious safety concerns,” including one death that the regulator said was “directly attributable” to the product. The company has one other product in the U.S.: the Japanese encephalitis shot Ixiaro.
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