Job Trends
CAR T–focused biotech Cargo Therapeutics surprised and disappointed analysts when it announced that it would discontinue a mid-stage trial of its lead program, firi-cel.
Labor Market Reports
The 9% average salary increase from 2023 to 2024 was the largest for life sciences professionals since 2021. Several factors could be behind the spike, including companies providing higher pay because bonuses and stock compensation went down.
Year-over-year BioSpace data show there were fewer job postings live on the website in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the decrease was higher than the third quarter’s drop.
Now Hiring
Looking for remote quality-control jobs in the life sciences industry? Check out this BioSpace list of five top jobs that are remote.
Looking for regulatory jobs in the biopharma industry? Check out the BioSpace list of seven top companies hiring for these critical roles.
If you’re a life sciences professional in the Genetown hotbed (Boston, Cambridge and the surrounding areas of Massachusetts) and are looking for your next challenge, take a look at these companies hiring on BioSpace.
Career Advice
Employees worried about layoffs can practice self-care, use employer resources and contact a mental health professional, if needed.
THE LATEST
For reasons including downsizing, avoiding retirement and a tight labor market, senior-level biopharma professionals are increasingly turning to fractional roles, according to two recruitment experts.
Massachusetts’ biopharma jobs increased 2.6% in 2023, according to the MassBio Industry Snapshot. Whether the state’s jobs grow in 2024 remains to be seen based on this year’s layoffs and seemingly slowed hiring based on BioSpace data.
The Switzerland layoffs are the latest in Bayer’s 2024 workforce reductions, which already include 1,500 people and nearly half of the executive leadership team.
Aadi Bioscience expects that pipeline adjustments and the workforce reduction will extend its cash runway into at least the second half of 2026.
Lykos will lay off approximately three-quarters of its staff amidst a reorganization aimed at helping the company complete a regulatory resubmission for its MDMA-assisted therapy.
Workforce reductions for the first half of August outpace May, June and July’s monthly totals.
To avoid being laid off, a third of biopharma professionals would take a pay cut and nearly a quarter would take a demotion, according to BioSpace LinkedIn polls. We spoke to several professionals about their layoff experiences and what they would—and wouldn’t—have done to keep their jobs.
The layoffs will help extend the company’s cash runway from the second half of 2026 into 2028.
The layoffs are intended to help provide an operating runway into the fourth quarter of 2026.
FibroGen expects its headcount reduction, which is tied to eliminating 75% of its U.S. workforce, to be mostly complete by the end of the first quarter of 2025.