Layoffs
Despite executing perfectly, Octagon confronted a “scientific no-go,” CEO Isaac Stoner said in his LinkedIn post announcing the company’s impending closure.
Spruce Biosciences is cutting over half of its employees as it looks to secure accelerated approval of a Sanfilippo syndrome therapy it recently acquired from BioMarin.
The cell and gene therapy company is cutting 47 employees and its entire lupus program to focus resources on two CAR Ts. The move follows a reconfiguration last year to move into immunology.
Where thousands of former Health and Human Services employees will work next is unknown, but biopharma companies likely aren’t the main destination. Two biopharma executives discuss potential landing spots.
California-based Tempest Therapeutics is laying off 21 of its 26 full-time employees. The cuts come while the biotech is exploring strategic alternatives, including a merger or acquisition, as it tries to move its investigational PPARα antagonist into late-stage development.
Like they say about the weather in Iceland, if you don’t like an action taken by the new administration, wait five minutes; it’ll probably change. The markets, it seems, don’t react kindly to that kind of policymaking.
During the first quarter, 22 rounds of biopharma layoffs in California affected about 995 employees total, while 17 rounds in Massachusetts impacted around 410 people, based on BioSpace estimates. Meanwhile, competition for jobs in those states increased year over year, according to BioSpace data.
In this bonus episode, BioSpace’s vice president of marketing Chantal Dresner and careers editor Angela Gabriel take a look at Q1 job market performance, layoffs and administration decisions impacting the workforce.
Health and Human Services employees aren’t the only ones out of work. Thousands of private-sector biopharma professionals lost their jobs in the first quarter.
After moving the manufacturing of a CAR T drug that was part of its ImmPACT Bio acquisition to Washington, Lyell Immunopharma is closing its Los Angeles manufacturing facility, eliminating dozens of jobs there.
PRESS RELEASES
