With the latest round, Roche’s Genentech will have racked up nearly 450 layoffs in California over the last year amid ongoing restructuring. At the same time, the biotech is joining forces with Astex Pharmaceuticals in a deal that could surpass $490 million.
Roche’s Genentech will lay off 103 employees by the end of the month, according to a California WARN report.
The cuts will impact roles “across several areas,” a spokesperson told BioSpace, including the biotech’s research and early development group (gRED), as reported last month.
“It is important to emphasize that most of these are focused adjustments within Genentech impacting a small proportion of the organization, and we continue to hire within Genentech, including gRED,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. As of publication, the company has not disclosed how many employees currently work within the Roche unit.
The spokesperson underscored Genentech’s mission to “continually assess and evolve our organization in the ever-changing and fast-moving environment in which we operate and innovate. This requires making difficult decisions to focus our people and resources on the work that creates the highest impact for patients.” This mirrors the company’s statement shared last month when Genentech revealed an undisclosed number of R&D layoffs. Those cuts included the departure of senior leader Vishva Dixit, who had been with Genentech since 1997.
The restructuring is intended to ensure the Roche subsidiary’s capabilities and investments align with its core therapeutic areas, advance its portfolio and deliver transformative medicines to patients faster, a Genentech spokesperson said at the time.
The new layoff numbers follow several other rounds of recent terminations, including the elimination of 141 roles in California last year that were disclosed this February. Since July 2025, the Roche subsidiary has let go of at least 449 workers in California, according to the state’s WARN report.
At the same time, Genentech is teaming up with Astex Pharmaceuticals to develop an investigational breast cancer therapy in a deal that could top $490 million, according to a Monday release.
The Roche unit is paying $25 million cash to enter an exclusive global research and licensing agreement with the U.K. biotech. Owned by Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Astex could collect proceeds topping $490 million, plus royalties, from the deal.
Together, the newly linked duo will use Astex’s existing drug discovery program for breast cancer and work to identify small molecule drug candidates with selective inhibitory activity. Genentech will take on all preclinical, clinical and commercialization activities of lead candidates, according to the deal terms.
Specific details of the program weren’t revealed, though the companies said the pact would target a “key cell-cycle-dependent regulator” in breast cancer.
“Working together with colleagues from Newcastle University, Astex’s fragment-based drug discovery expertise has led to the discovery of a novel and innovative approach to selectively inhibit this key oncology target for breast cancer therapy,” Astex President Michelle Jones said in the release.
