Takeda’s cuts will go the deepest, affecting over 4,700 employees. Layoffs tied to M&A activity include BioNTech letting go of around 800 people at CureVac.
The number of biopharmas implementing or planning layoffs dropped 58% year over year in the first half of 2026, but total affected employees decreased by just 5%, to 14,427, based on BioSpace tallies.
The mixed results are due largely to deep cuts from three companies that will collectively eliminate 9,603 jobs. BioNTech will let go of about 1,860 staffers, Viatris up to 3,000 and Takeda around 4,743, including roughly 4,500 as part of a recently announced transformation program.
Fewer people were affected by deep cuts in H1 2025, when two companies accounted for 6,293 of the half’s layoffs. Teva Pharmaceuticals announced it would let go of 2,893 staffers by 2027, while Bayer ousted 3,400 people in connection with its dynamic shared ownership model introduced in January 2024.
Takeda’s layoffs this year began in January, when the Japan-based pharma disclosed it was cutting 243 employees across its U.S. operations, a move that heavily affected its neuroscience commercialization teams, the Boston Business Journal reported. In May, news broke that the company’s transformation program would include letting go of around 4,500 employees in fiscal year 2026.
The next-deepest H1 cuts, at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania–based Viatris, followed a strategic review and a manufacturing facility fire in India. In February, the company announced a restructuring that includes laying off up to 10% of its global workforce within the next three years. The cuts could affect up to 3,000 people given Viatris has more than 30,000 employees, according to an SEC filing.
M&A-related cuts will affect over 1,000
H1 layoffs didn’t surprise Eric Celidonio, founder and managing partner of Sci.bio Recruiting. Celidonio told BioSpace the workforce reductions are different from those seen in previous years. They’re coming from larger commercial entities rather than startups and early-stage companies, so mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are driving more of the cuts, he said.
From January to June, there were at least five biopharma workforce culls that followed acquisitions. In total, these cuts will affect at least 1,130 people, 820 of them from CureVac.
- In early May, a week after closing its $7.8 billion acquisition of Arcellx, Gilead Sciences disclosed that, starting this year and into 2027, it will cut 192 employees. Arcellx had 220 staffers as of March 1, according to an SEC filing, meaning the layoffs are likely to wipe out 87% of the biotech’s workforce.
- Also in early May, BioNTech noted in a quarterly report that its cuts of up to 1,860 positions across multiple sites will affect about 820 people at CureVac’s locations in Germany and abroad. Those layoffs will be effective by the end of 2027. BioNTech closed its $1.25 billion all-stock acquisition of CureVac in December.
- In mid-May, just two weeks after being absorbed into BioMarin Pharmaceutical through an all-cash deal worth $4.8 billion, Amicus Therapeutics disclosed it will let go of 58 employees from its Princeton, New Jersey, headquarters. The layoffs, which a company spokesperson confirmed were linked to the BioMarin acquisition, are effective from Aug. 7 through Oct. 30.
- In June, several months after Novartis closed a $1.4 billion acquisition of Tourmaline Bio, Tourmaline disclosed it had cut 60 employees at its New York headquarters on May 29. The layoffs were linked to that location’s closure.
- Also in June, Biogen confirmed to BioSpace that it’s cutting a small number of roles within its research arm related to discontinued Apellis Pharmaceuticals programs. Biogen closed its $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis in May.
As to why M&A activity results in cuts, Celidonio noted that once a company acquires the technology or programs it wants, it doesn’t need every employee at the other business.
“And so, once those deals are closed, and the business initiatives are more or less consolidated and a part of the overall operation, they tend to cut people who are less crucial,” he said. “It’s really just part of a broader efficiency measure.”
In a recent interview with BioSpace, Graig Suvannavejh, managing director and senior biotech and biopharma analyst at Mizuho Securities, shared a similar viewpoint. He said acquiring companies don’t necessarily want to take on all salary costs at the businesses they take over. Who they keep, he explained, can depend on whether there would be duplicate roles or if people are working on projects that get nixed.
“So, it’s a balance of what those acquirers want to keep, and each acquisition will involve a different calculus, depending on the needs of the acquirer,” Suvannavejh said.
That said, the workforce is sometimes highly prized. Gilead said in April when it bought Tubulis for $5 billion that the biotech will function as a dedicated antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) research and development unit within the larger organization.
There could be additional layoffs this year tied to acquisitions given M&A activity has picked up. During H1, there were 52 such deals, up from around 30 in H1 2025, according to BioSpace tallies, and Celidonio and Suvannavejh expect the M&A upswing to continue. A key reason for that, they noted, are the patent expirations awaiting some pharma companies.
From 2025 to 2035, the pharmaceutical industry is expected to face a $236 billion to $300 billion patent cliff, with nearly 70 blockbuster drugs losing market protections, according to Mitchell Kapoor. Last month, the H.C. Wainwright director and senior biotech equity research analyst discussed with BioSpace the “existential risk” this presents for the industry.
The way pharmas typically address potential upcoming revenue gaps such as those stemming from patent cliffs is by buying smaller companies, which can lead to layoffs, noted Suvannavejh.
“So, you could be happy working at your biotech company, and if Pfizer comes in and gobbles you up, maybe you have a chance to get a job at Pfizer, but maybe you don’t,” he said.
Layoffs hit 14 states, mainly Massachusetts, California
Regarding where H1 layoffs struck, those whose locations were known will affect 14 U.S. states, mainly on the eastern side of the country.
Massachusetts and California, major hubs for biotech and pharma employers, are where most companies are targeting workforce reductions, with 14 and 13 biopharmas in those states, respectively, letting go or planning to let go of employees. New Jersey had the third-highest number of companies with cuts at six total.
Some biopharmas’ layoffs are taking place across multiple states. Takeda’s will have the widest reach, affecting employees in California, Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.
*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.
