The number of employees laid off and companies letting people go increased year over year during the first half of 2025. BioSpace recaps the five largest layoff rounds, including cuts at Bayer, BMS and Teva.
Layoffs show no sign of slowing, with 130 biopharmas axing 13,470 employees in the first half of 2025, resulting in a 31% year-over-year increase in the number of people let go, according to BioSpace tallies. During the same period in 2024, 91 companies cut 10,276 staffers. Those numbers exclude contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, tools and services businesses and medical device firms.
To tally layoffs for the first half of 2025,* BioSpace compiled data for known workforce reductions. The number of employees affected was identified or estimated primarily through information in company press releases, Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices, SEC filings and other media outlets’ reports or via confirmation from company officials.
Using the resulting tallies, here are the five largest rounds of mass cuts made or announced by biopharmas during the first six months of 2025 based on the number of people affected in each workforce reduction.
1. Teva Pharmaceuticals: 2,893 Worldwide
In May, news broke that Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals will lay off 2,893 employees worldwide—an approximately 8% workforce reduction—by 2027. According to a subsequent WARN notice and confirmation by a company spokesperson to BioSpace, 54 of the affected employees work in Salt Lake City.
Teva executives announced the layoffs during a first quarter earnings call, connecting the cuts with a strategic growth initiative they expect will generate about $700 million in net savings by 2027. In a statement later that day, CEO Richard Francis said, “We’re accelerating innovative growth and strengthening our generics business, while streamlining our operations, sharpening our business and optimizing processes.”
The pharma reported $3.9 billion in revenue in the first quarter, a 5% year-over-year increase and Teva’s ninth consecutive quarter of growth. At the same time, the company slightly lowered its expected 2025 revenue, setting it at $16.8 billion to $17.2 billion, down from a high end of $17.4 billion.
2. Bayer: 2,000 Across the Company
During a media call in May that covered earnings results, Bayer revealed it had cut 2,000 employees companywide in the first quarter. The Germany-based pharma did not identify the number of layoff rounds involved, when or where they happened or how many people each one affected. A spokesperson told BioSpace the company reports headcount changes only on a quarterly or annual basis.
Bayer Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Nickl said during the call that the cuts affected all three of the pharma’s divisions. He added that there was a keen focus on reducing the level of positions, noting that the workforce reduction affected mostly management roles.
Since kicking off a sweeping reorganization initiative in July 2023, Bayer has let go of about 11,000 employees, CEO Bill Anderson noted on the call. This effort, he added, has made the company “leaner, faster and more productive” while simultaneously allowing Bayer to free up resources “so our teams can flow them to the highest-impact work.”
3. BMS: 516 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey
As Bristol Myers Squibb continues a massive overhaul initiated last year, total layoffs for the first half of 2025 topped 1,000, with the largest cut coming in May. Early that month, the company disclosed via a WARN notice that it’s axing 516 employees in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, home to its headquarters and a location housing its commercialization and late-stage development teams. It was not immediately clear if the cuts—coming in multiple waves that end March 27, 2026—affect both sites.
The layoffs are part of BMS’ strategic reorganization intended to save $3.5 billion through 2027. In April 2024, the company announced it would eliminate about 2,200 jobs by the end of last year to help generate approximately $1.5 billion in cost savings through 2025. In February, BMS announced that the strategic reorganization would deepen, with an additional $2 billion in savings through 2027 that will come from organizational design changes and enhanced operational efficiency.
All told, for the first half of 2025, the company had six layoff rounds affecting 1,064 people total: 874 in Lawrenceville; 133 in Libertyville, Illinois; and 57 in Redwood City, California.
4. Novartis: 427 in East Hanover, New Jersey
Novartis in mid-March disclosed via a WARN notice that it’s laying off 427 employees at its U.S. headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey. The cuts began June 13 and will end Oct. 24.
Just days prior to divulging those layoffs, the Switzerland-based pharma disclosed a smaller workforce reduction affecting 34 people at its Campus Point manufacturing facility in San Diego. Those cuts were connected to the site’s closure and were effective June 27. Novartis had used the San Diego facility primarily for producing gene therapies.
The pharma also had multiple workforce cuts in 2024. In December, for example, news broke that Novartis will let go of 330 employees in conjunction with shutting down sites in Germany and Boston by the end of this year. Novartis gained those locations through its $2.9 billion acquisition of MorphoSys, boosting its oncology portfolio with the small molecule BET inhibitor pelabresib.
5. Sage Therapeutics: 338 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
At the end of June, Sage Therapeutics disclosed via a WARN notice that it’s cutting its entire workforce—338 employees—in Cambridge, Massachusetts, effective Aug. 22. The move came about two weeks after the biotech agreed to be acquired by Supernus Pharmaceuticals for up to $795 million. The companies expect to close the transaction in the third quarter.
The Supernus agreement followed a $469 million takeover offer from Biogen in January. However, even though Sage and Biogen partnered on developing Zurzuvae, which received FDA approval for postpartum depression but not major depressive disorder, the smaller biotech wasn’t interested in the deal.
Sage had been looking for a financial path forward following multiple challenges including failed midstage trials for now-discontinued pipeline candidate dalzanemdor in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. The company announced in October that it would cut 33% of its staff, with the layoffs mostly complete by the end of 2024.
*When looking at layoffs for the first half of 2025, it’s important to note that not all companies disclose downsizing, and some share only the percentage of staff affected. In addition, some biopharmas provide total numbers retrospectively rather than disclosing individual workforce reductions as they happen.
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