Q3 layoffs down YOY, with 90% fewer biopharma employees affected

Biopharma layoffs continue to trend down year over year. During the third quarter, there was a 56% drop in the number of companies making or projecting cuts and a 90% plunge in affected employees, based on BioSpace tallies. The 27 biopharmas and 2,568 people connected to Q3 workforce reductions are the lowest quarterly figures recorded since BioSpace began tracking layoffs in 2024.

The number of companies trimming staff has dropped each quarter since the start of 2025. That total fell under 30 in Q2 2026 and stayed under 30 last quarter. The number of affected employees, by contrast, has bounced up and down during the past two years. Still, Q3 2026 had the fewest impacted people for any quarter of 2025 or 2026.

During the third quarter, eight Big Pharma companies were reported to be making or projecting workforce cuts totaling 1,845 employees.

Bristol Myers Squibb is letting go of 265 people at its Princeton, New Jersey, site from Dec. 17, 2026, to May 21, 2027, according to a September Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice. The cuts are not the first to affect the company’s New Jersey workforce this year. In February and April, the pharma disclosed layoffs in Lawrenceville effective in 2026 that will impact 453 people total.

New Jersey–based BMS has been in cost-cutting mode since 2024, when it announced a restructuring intended to save about $1.5 billion through 2025. Last year, the company announced additional cuts meant to generate $2 billion in savings through 2027.

News broke in September that U.K.-based GSK is consolidating vaccine manufacturing operations to one site in Canada, resulting in a German facility closure that will leave about 650 employees jobless. A company spokesperson confirmed to BioSpace the decision was related to the pharma’s three-year, $2.5 billion restructuring announced in July.

During a media call at that time, GSK CEO Luke Miels would not say how many people the restructuring’s global job cuts will affect.

Effective Dec. 18, Johnson & Johnson is letting go of 87 employees in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where the company is headquartered, according to a September WARN notice. The cuts are the pharma’s second round of known layoffs in New Jersey this year. On Aug. 21, J&J completed a workforce reduction of 56 people across its new Brunswick, Raritan, Somerville and Titusville locations.

Asked by BioSpace about both rounds of cuts, a company spokesperson referenced the pharma’s continuous evaluation of its cost structure and organizational design and its move to spin out its orthopedics unit. J&J announced in October 2025 that separating out that part of its medtech business would take around 18 to 24 months.

Merck will cut 54 employees at its Rahway, New Jersey, headquarters, from Dec. 11, 2026, to Jan. 4, 2027, according to a September WARN notice. It’s Merck’s third known workforce cut this year. In March, the pharma disclosed it was laying off 154 people in Durham, North Carolina, effective May 1. In June, Merck divulged it was letting go of 88 employees in Rahway on Sept. 4.

The three rounds of cuts totaling 296 people follow the pharma’s 2025 announcement of a $3 billion restructuring that runs through 2027.

In September, Novartis announced it may let go of roughly 130 employees in Switzerland due to discontinuing small-volume production of biologics in Kleinbasel by the end of 2027. That discontinuation is tied to the Swiss pharma relocating laboratories for supporting biological cell banks, analytical testing and technical development activities to Basel by the end of 2028.

Novartis’ largest round of layoffs this year were disclosed in a July WARN notice. The company let go of 322 employees in East Hanover, New Jersey, effective Oct. 2. The cuts marked the fourth time this year that Novartis trimmed its East Hanover workforce. The first three rounds of layoffs at that location, all effective in 2026, impacted 250 employees total.

In total this year, Novartis has announced or disclosed cuts that could affect at least 922 people.

Effective Dec. 31, Denmark-based Novo is letting go of 108 employees in Princeton, New Jersey, according to a September WARN notice. It’s Novo’s second round of known cuts this year. The pharma also laid off 400 employees at a manufacturing site in Bloomington, Indiana, in May, Fierce Pharma reported.

While the two waves of known cuts total 508 people, the most notable workforce reduction was reported last month. Novo CEO Mike Maziar Doustdar said the company’s overall headcount had dropped by 13,000 over the past year, including 9,000 laid off as part a restructuring announced in September 2025. Through that restructuring, the pharma expected to generate around $1.25 billion in annualized savings through this year.

A Novo spokesperson told BioSpace the newly revealed 4,000 figure should not be interpreted as additional layoffs. They noted that workforce levels changed for reasons including normal attrition, retirements, voluntary departures, decisions to not backfill roles and other hiring decisions, as well as organizational changes.

Pfizer announced last month it’s adding $2.5 billion in cuts to its ongoing restructuring program. Much of the new reductions will come in the form of “technology and simplification efforts” across the New York–based pharma’s commercial, research and development and manufacturing functions.

Cuts that fall under Pfizer’s “Realigning Our Cost Base Program” will save an expected $1 billion. In connection with that program, the company will incur a one-time cost of $2 billion for “digital enablement, implementation and severance.” A Pfizer spokesperson declined to provide BioSpace with details on affected jobs.

The pharma launched its restructuring program in 2023, expecting it to generate $3.5 billion in savings. With ongoing raises to that number, Pfizer now expects $6.7 billion in savings through 2029.

France-based Sanofi disclosed in an August WARN notice that subsidiary Blueprint Medicines is laying off 229 employees in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Blueprint is headquartered. The cuts run from Oct. 9, 2026, to June 25, 2027.

Sanofi completed its $9.5 billion acquisition of Blueprint, which develops medicines focused on allergy/inflammation and oncology/hematology, in July 2025.

Based on companies whose made or projected cuts were identified as affecting specific locations, Q3’s workforce reductions affected employees in six states. Massachusetts had the most biopharmas trimming staff (nine), followed by New Jersey (six) and California (three).

When looking at companies whose workforce reduction numbers are known, New Jersey is the state where made or projected layoffs will affect the most employees (851), followed by Massachusetts (487) and California (246). The New Jersey workforce reductions were driven largely by Novartis and BMS cuts of 322 and 265 employees, respectively. Totaling 587, those layoffs represent 69% of the people affected in the Garden State.

In Massachusetts, 47% of affected employees worked for Blueprint in Cambridge, where 229 people will be out of work by June 2027. In California, 40% of those impacted by layoffs were employed by Arsenal Biosciences at the company’s Hayward and South San Francisco locations. The biotech is parting ways with 99 people across those sites.

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 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.