Nxera, which formerly went by Sosei, will also reprioritize its pipeline to focus on obesity, metabolic and endocrine diseases.
Nxera Pharma will part ways with 15% of its employees in a sweeping realignment initiative that the Japanese company hopes will “enhance” its “path to profitability” and help it hit its growth and revenue targets for 2030.
The layoffs will affect around 56 people across Nxera’s Japanese and U.K. operations; the company had 374 employees at the end of 2024, according to its 2024 annual report. Aside from thinning out its ranks, Nxera is also cutting its executive team from 10 people to seven, effective March 2026.
Nxera doesn’t expect this restructuring push to affect its operations and staffing in South Korea and Switzerland, though the company anticipates absorbing a one-time cost of ¥500 million, or around $3.225 million. The Japanese firm will recognize these charges this fiscal year. As a result of this strategic initiative, however, Nxera estimates its savings to increase by at least ¥1 billion (roughly $6.45 million) year-on-year in the 2026 fiscal year.
In a note to investors Monday evening, Jefferies analysts said the ¥1-billion savings target “appears low,” especially since Nxera can likely clear this bar “through headcount optimization and management pay cuts alone.” Nevertheless, the analysts concurred with the company’s moves, noting that the restructuring “is necessary to achieve stable profitability and have [a] positive impression.”
This restructuring initiative comes more than a year after the company rebranded from the Sosei Group to Nxera.
Beyond its organizational adjustments, Nxera is also reorienting its pipeline priorities and will focus its efforts on potentially “best-in-class opportunities” involving G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) biology, according to its Monday release. The company plans to focus on obesity as well as metabolic and endocrine diseases.
Nxera already kicked off this renewed pipeline direction in August when it launched its proprietary pipeline of “next-generation therapies” targeting weight-loss and associated metabolic conditions. Key to this new push is the wholly owned small-molecule GLP-1 program, which the company at the time said leveraged “differentiated chemistry,” though it did not specify how and in what ways.
To complement this lead GLP-1 program, Nxera is also developing six other GPCR-targeting assets, including small-molecule drugs targeting GIP, apelin and amylin, respectively. The Japanese company is also working on a GIP antagonist—rather than an agonist—and two long-acting programs for which the specific targets remain undisclosed.
In parallel to its in-house projects, Nxera also has partnered programs with industry powerhouses like Pfizer and Eli Lilly. In its press announcement on Monday, Nxera noted that “multiple partnered programs” are set to hit near-term milestones in the next fiscal year, though the company did not reveal which programs these are.
Nxera has $30.9 billion, or nearly $200 million, in cash and liquid investments.
