Workforce cuts this year at seven companies involved in recent mergers and acquisitions will cost over 1,300 employees their jobs. Affected businesses include Arcellx and Tourmaline Bio, acquired by Gilead Sciences and Novartis, respectively.
So far in 2026, layoffs have hit at least seven biopharmas involved in a recent merger or acquisition. Those companies’ cuts will collectively wipe out a minimum of 1,359 employees’ jobs, according to BioSpace tallies. The largest workforce reduction is at CureVac—acquired by BioNTech—where 820 people will need to find other positions by the end of next year.
Below, BioSpace looks at the seven M&A deals where layoffs followed in 2026, sometimes just days or weeks after the transactions closed.
1. Gilead Sciences and Arcellx
Once Gilead Sciences closed its $7.8 billion acquisition of Arcellx, it didn’t take the pharma long to disclose it was slashing the biotech’s workforce. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices in California and Maryland were dated April 30, just two days after Gilead announced it had completed the deal. The pharma is laying off 192 Arcellx employees, likely wiping out 87% of the biotech’s workforce, according to a BioSpace estimate based on a March 1 employee count.
Most affected staff worked at Arcellx’s headquarters in Redwood City, California, where 108 people were let go effective June 30. In Rockville, Maryland, 84 employees are being laid off between June 30, 2026, and April 30, 2027.
2. BioMarin Pharmaceutical and Amicus Therapeutics
In early May, two weeks after BioMarin Pharmaceutical announced completion of its $4.8 billion acquisition of Amicus Therapeutics, Amicus disclosed it will lay off 58 staffers from its Princeton, New Jersey, headquarters. The cuts could affect around 11% of the biotech’s workforce, according to a BioSpace estimate based on an employee count as of Dec. 31, 2025.
The layoffs are effective from Aug. 7 to Oct. 30, 2026, according to the WARN notice.
A BioMarin spokesperson told Fierce Pharma the layoffs link to the acquisition, noting that “As with any integration of this scale, we are carefully evaluating how to align our organizations for long-term success. This process has resulted in headcount reductions, particularly in areas where there is overlap.”
3. Novartis and Tourmaline Bio
While Novartis completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Tourmaline Bio in October 2025, Tourmaline did not disclose layoffs until four months later, in February. The company divulged in a WARN notice that it was letting go of 60 employees at its New York City headquarters, effective May 29. The cuts may have affected about 79% of the biotech’s workforce, according to a BioSpace estimate based on an employee count as of Aug. 1, 2025.
In addition to letting employees go, Tourmaline also closed its headquarters, according to the WARN notice. The alert stated “merger” as the reason behind the closure.
4. BioNTech and CureVac
BioNTech completed its $1.25 billion acquisition of CureVac in December 2025 and divulged layoffs five months later. In early May, BioNTech disclosed in a quarterly report that it will let go of about 820 people at CureVac by the end of next year. The workforce reduction could affect 83% of the biotech’s workforce, according to a BioSpace estimate based on an employee count as of Dec. 31, 2024, the most recent count filed with the SEC.
In its quarterly report, BioNTech noted that it plans to exit operations at Germany-based CureVac’s German and international sites, which host clinical and commercial-scale mRNA manufacturing capacities as well as research and development and enabling functions.
5. Biogen and Apellis Pharmaceuticals
In June, one month after closing its $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Biogen told BioSpace it is cutting a “small number” of roles within its research arm related to discontinued Apellis programs. The company did not specify how many of the biotech’s employees are affected. Apellis had 739 employees as of Dec. 31, 2025.
Biogen had conducted a comprehensive review of the biotech’s clinical and preclinical portfolio and, as a result, decided to pause or terminate investment in most legacy preclinical programs, a Biogen spokesperson told BioSpace.
6. MindMaze Therapeutics and Relief Therapeutics
Earlier this month, eight months after completing a reverse merger with Relief Therapeutics, MindMaze Therapeutics announced it had finished an organizational simplification involving disposal of Switzerland-based Relief’s legacy operations. MindMaze Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Meinen told BioSpace that “a handful” of Relief employees were let go and received notice periods of several months.
Meinen explained that rather than close Relief’s legacy operations in Switzerland, which employed around 25 people, MindMaze found acquirers for those businesses. New ownership retained “substantially all” Relief employees, with some remaining at MindMaze and others let go, he said. Meinen declined to specify the number laid off or name the acquiring businesses.
7. Sanofi and Blueprint Medicines
Sanofi and Blueprint Medicines had a long lag from deal closure to cuts. Earlier this month, 13 months after completing its $9.5 billion acquisition of Blueprint Medicines, Sanofi disclosed in a WARN notice that Blueprint is laying off about 229 employees in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the subsidiary is based. Effective from Oct. 9, 2026, to June 25, 2027, the cuts could affect around 33% of Blueprint’s workforce, according to a BioSpace estimate based on an employee count as of April 15, 2025.
In addition to the layoffs, the Cambridge facility will close Dec. 31, with “decommissioning work” happening through June 2027, according to the full WARN notice. As of Jan. 1, 2027, remaining Blueprint employees assigned to that location will start reporting to Sanofi’s U.S. office in Cambridge at 450 Water St.
More layoffs could be ahead
While it’s unknown how many more layoffs will follow recent M&A deals, it’s possible additional cuts are on the way given how transactions have ramped up in 2026. During H1, there were 52 mergers and acquisitions, up from 32 in H1 2025, according to BioSpace tallies. Deals have continued into the second half of 2026, with at least 10 announced through Aug. 18. The largest transaction BioSpace reported is Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ $10 billion buyout of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals.
One deal already linked to likely workforce cuts is the Supernus Pharmaceuticals and Indivior Pharmaceuticals merger announced at the start of this month. That business combination, expected to produce $2.2 billion in combined revenue, will likely result in “natural redundancies” in general and administrative roles, Supernus CEO Jack Khattar said during a recent investor call. Rockville, Maryland–based Supernus had 778 employees and North Chesterfield, Virginia–based Indivior 838 as of Dec. 31, 2025.
Layoff numbers exclude contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, tools and services businesses and medical device firms. To tally the cuts, BioSpace compiles data for known workforce reductions. The number of employees affected is identified or estimated through confirmation from company officials as well as information in company press releases, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, SEC filings and other media outlets’ reports.
Not all companies disclose downsizing, and some share only the percentage of staff affected. Some biopharmas provide total numbers retrospectively rather than disclosing individual workforce reductions as they happen.
