Exelixis is looking at the possibility of relocating some of the eliminated Pennsylvania roles to its headquarters in Alameda, California, according to a company spokesperson.
Exelixis will shutter its facility in Pennsylvania, leaving 130 employees without jobs as the cancer specialist rightsizes its operations after a pandemic-era boom in hiring.
Confirming the news of the layoffs to Fierce Biotech, a spokesperson for Exelixis said that the company “hired a significant number of employees—including many in fully remote positions—during the pandemic and post-pandemic period” to help it meet its business needs. “As our business has continued to evolve, we have made the difficult decision to reorganize the company’s structure to focus largely on our operations in Alameda, California.”
Exelixis is looking at the possibility of relocating some of these terminated roles to its California office, the spokesperson added. Focusing its operations in Alameda “reflects our continued belief that working together as a single, cohesive team puts us in the best position” to maximize the potential of its assets.
One of these assets is zanzalintinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that Exelixis is positioning as the successor to its cabozantinib brands, sold under the names Cometriq and Cabometyx. A Phase III readout in June showed that when combined with Roche’s PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq, zanzalintinib significantly improved overall survival in previously treated patients with microsatellite instability-high metastatic colorectal cancer.
Writing to investors at the time of the readout, analysts at Leerink Partners said that this late-stage win could help Exelixis maintain its revenue stream beyond 2030, when cabozantinib loses key patent protections and becomes open to generic competition.
Beyond colorectal cancer, Exelixis is also testing zanzalintinib for non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma, for which enrollment in a Phase III trial was completed in May. Early data are expected in the first half of 2026. Zanzalintinib is also being assessed for neuroendocrine tumors.
Like zanzalintinib, cabozantinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks signaling cascades key for maintaining cancer cells’ growth and survival. The drug was first approved in 2012 for metastatic medullary thyroid cancer, for which it carries the brand name Cometriq. Then, in April 2016, the FDA greenlit cabozantinib for advanced renal cell carcinoma, but this time, Exelixis gave it the brand name Cabometyx.
Cabometyx has since picked up additional indications, including hepatocellular carcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors and thyroid cancer.
The drug has become Exelixis’ strongest revenue stream, contributing $1.81 billion out of the company’s $2.17 billion earnings in 2024.
