The number of biopharma professionals let go has increased year over year for three straight months. In July, as many as 8,000 people lost or were projected to lose their jobs, due largely to news that Merck projects to cut roughly 6,000 employees as part of a multiyear process.
July proved brutal for thousands of biopharma professionals. Biotechs and pharmas axed as many as 7,900 employees, roughly, including projected cuts, based on BioSpace tallies.* That’s more people than in any month of 2024 or 2025 and a 487% year-over-year increase.
Rahway, New Jersey–based Merck had the largest projected workforce reduction. On July 29, the pharma announced a $3 billion cost-cutting move to support launching 20 products nearing the market—a move that includes eliminating administrative, sales, and research and development roles. A spokesperson later told BioSpace the cuts could affect about 6,000 employees as part of a multiyear process, which would be roughly 8% of the company’s global workforce.
July marked the third straight month there was a year-over-year increase in the number of people companies laid off. While the biggest jump during that timeframe happened last month (+487%), there was also a dramatic surge in May (+232%).
The number of companies cutting employees has risen year over year for five straight months. The biggest jump in 2025 was in May, when 27 biopharmas laid off staff, more than double the 11 businesses that trimmed workforces during the same month in 2024. The next-largest year-over-year increase was in June, when the number doubled from eight to 16.
The total amount of people let go in July could go higher than 7,900. One reason is that Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices filed at the end of one month sometimes don’t post to state websites until the start of the next one. So, additional July layoffs could become known in the coming days. In addition, companies sometimes disclose cuts the following quarter without saying exactly when they occurred. For example, Bayer in May announced it had let go of 2,000 people during Q1 without specifying in which month—or months—those layoffs took place.
July’s layoffs followed a tough first half of the year for many biopharma professionals, as 130 biotechs and pharmas cut about 13,300 employees, a 29% year-over-year increase. Those numbers are BioSpace’s latest tallies, updated in late July because Watertown, Massachusetts–based iTeos Therapeutics, which had planned to shut down, will instead be acquired by Concentra Biosciences. BioSpace contacted iTeos to verify if any employees had been let go as part of the now-nixed closure but did not receive a response.
July Layoffs: Sarepta, Moderna Cut Hundreds
While Merck had the largest projected layoffs, other companies also made significant cuts, with Sarepta Therapeutics grabbing the biggest headlines. On July 16, following the deaths of two teenagers who took the company’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment Elevidys, Sarepta announced a strategic restructuring that included cutting about 500 employees, a 36% workforce reduction. The biotech also noted it had agreed to put a black box warning for acute liver injury and acute liver failure on the gene therapy’s label.
Moderna also had a significant downsizing. On July 31, CEO Stéphane Bancel informed employees that cost-cutting efforts that started earlier in 2025 will now include laying off about 10% of the company’s workforce, reducing headcount to under 5,000 people. That means about 550 people are losing their jobs at the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based mRNA biotech, which hopes to decrease annual operating expenses by about $1.5 billion by 2027.
Other noteworthy July cuts include those at Adaptimmune Therapeutics, Century Therapeutics and Jasper Therapeutics.
· U.K.-based biotech Adaptimmune plans to axe 62% of its workforce once it closes its deal to sell four cell therapy assets to US WorldMeds, according to a July 28 SEC filing. Endpoints News reported that the biotech expects to cut about 100 employees across its U.S. and U.K sites.
· Philadelphia-based Century slashed 51% of its employees in an effort to “right size” the company, according to a July 7 SEC filing. A subsequent WARN notice stated that the biotech let go of 72 employees—54 of whom were in Philadelphia—effective July 11.
· Redwood City, California–based Jasper is laying off about 50% of its workforce to help extend its cash runway, the biotech announced July 9. The company had 60 full-time employees as of March 31, according to an SEC filing, meaning the cuts could leave the biotech with around 30 staffers.
Layoffs Push Unemployed and Employed To Job Hunt
Layoffs are prompting even those who haven’t lost their jobs to look for work, according to Bryan Blair, vice president of life sciences at GQR, and Steve Swan, CEO of The Swan Group. The two recently commented on findings from a July BioSpace LinkedIn poll, which found that 81% of employed respondents plan to look for a new biopharma position in the next 12 months.
Blair noted that people fear being laid off, and Swan pointed to a desire for job security. Along those lines, Swan noted that biopharma professionals whose companies don’t get—or are waiting a long time for—drug approvals, are running out of money or are being acquired may eye employment elsewhere.
“Who knows what that means for their future, right?” he said.
*To tally layoffs, BioSpace compiles data for known workforce reductions. The number of employees affected is identified or estimated primarily through information in company press releases, WARN notices, SEC filings and other media outlets’ reports or via confirmation from company officials.
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.
Editor’s note (Aug. 7): This story was updated to clarify that Merck’s cuts are projected cuts that are part of a multiyear process.
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