Layoffs
Follow along as BioSpace tracks job cuts and restructuring initiatives.
Gilead is laying off Arcellx employees in California and Maryland, with some cuts effective this year and the remainder happening in 2027.
Opportunities increased by the end of the first quarter, according to BioSpace data.
The action affects BioNTech sites in Germany and Singapore, where the company expects to have excess capacity.
Passage Bio, which has been working toward a registrational trial for a drug candidate whose indications include frontotemporal dementia, is exploring strategic alternatives in addition to cutting staff.
Six biotechs based in California, Massachusetts, Washington and Denmark had to halt drug development efforts this year. One of their CEOs is now in an interim chief executive role at another biotech.
Replimune is axing 144 employees at its Woburn headquarters and 80 at its Framingham manufacturing site. The cuts follow the FDA’s second rejection of the biotech’s advanced melanoma candidate.
The trend of fewer companies letting employees go, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, has continued. However, more employees were on the chopping block in Q1 2026 than in Q1 2025, due mainly to one company’s cuts.
By closing the Universal Cells Seattle location, Astellas is reportedly consolidating cell therapy, gene therapy and oncology research at its South San Francisco, California, and Westborough, Massachusetts, sites.
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 and what it signals for the coming months.
PRESS RELEASES
