Layoffs continue into 1Q25

March 2025

Novartis is cutting approximately 430 employees from its headquarters in East Hanover, NJ, according to a WARN notice. In December, Novartis announced plans to close the recently acquired MorphoSys sites in Germany and Boston, impacting 330 employees.

Novartis is also cutting 34 jobs at its Campus Point manufacturing facility in San Diego, CA, related to the site’s closure, effective on June 27, according to a WARN notice. Novartis previously announced plans to slow operations at its San Diego site last July, where the company primarily produces gene therapies.

Bristol Myers Squibb is cutting 57 employees from its Redwood City, CA facility, according to a WARN notice filed on February 26. In total, BMS cut approximately 2,000 employees in 2024. 

Eisai is cutting 121 employees from its U.S. workforce as part of a strategic restructuring, amounting to 6.8% of its U.S. workforce. The cuts include 57 employees from its U.S. headquarters in Nutley, NJ, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. Eisai also has sites in Baltimore, Exton, PA, and Raleigh, NC.

February 2025

Bristol Myers Squibb is cutting a further 223 employees at its Lawrenceville, NJ, site, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, bringing the total cuts in Lawrenceville to 290, having previously cut 67 employees there.

In April 2024 BMS announced plans to eliminate approximately 2,200 jobs by the end of the year as part of an effort to generate approximately $1.5 billion in costs savings through 2025. Job cuts in Lawrenceville job have totaled more than 1,300 people.

January 2025

I-Mab, a U.S.-based global biotech company focused on the development of precision immuno-oncology agents to treat cancer, is reprioritizing its resources to focus on advancing its lead program, givastomig, a CLDN18.2 x 4-1BB bispecific antibody, targeting first-line metastatic gastric cancers, with further potential in other solid tumors.

I-MAB completed a workforce reduction as part of a Realignment Plan aimed at optimizing its operations following the pipeline reprioritization. The company reduced its workforce by approximately 27% and expects an annual savings of approximately $3 million.

With operations in Rockville, MD, and Short Hills, NJ, I-Mab had approximately 220 employees as of December 31, 2023.

November 2024

Johnson & Johnson and Merck are laying off employees in China, according to Bloomberg which cites reports from Chinese media and industry sources.

The J&J layoffs are part of a restructuring of its China operations, that according to Bloomberg primarily affect a surgical products division.

The company employs approximately 10,000 people in China at more than 90 locations.

The Merck layoffs primarily impact its diabetes group in China, according to Bloomberg. The company sells Janumet, Januvia and Steglatro in China. Sales are declining worldwide due to generic competition.

Gilead plans to cut 72 employees at its Seattle location, which will close, according to a November 13 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. The site performs research and clinical development activities. Additionally, subsidiary Kite Pharma will close its Philadelphia facility, which focuses on cell therapies to treat cancer.

Thermo Fisher Scientific will lay off 160 employees across locations in Lexington, Plainville and Cambridge, MA between January 6, 2025 and November 6, 2026, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice dated November 7.

Thermo Fisher plans to close the 50,000-sq.-ft. CDMO site in Lexington, which opened in 2019 and provides development, testing and manufacture of viral vectors. The 290,000-sq.-ft. facility in Plainville provides viral vector services ranging from process development to commercial manufacturing.

Charles River Laboratories restructuring initiatives include laying off more than 1,300 employees since 2023, or approximately 6% of its workforce, according to Boston Business Journal.

Additionally, in its 3Q24 earnings, Charles River stated that it is closing or consolidating 15 smaller sites that focus on discovery and safety assessment and regulatory management services.

October  2024

Pfizer is laying off 75 additional employees in Sanford, NC. Pfizer previously cut 150 positions in Sanford following a Phase 3 trial failure for its Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy candidate.

Evonik is restructuring to focus on its strategic core growth areas. Evonik will evaluate strategic options, such as partnerships or divestment, for developing its keto and pharma amino acid production sites in Ham and Wuming. It is also planning to discontinue its production of keto acids in Hanau by the end of 2025, affecting around 260 employees. Evonik’s keto and pharma amino acid business generates an annual average revenue of around 100 million euros.

Johnson & Johnson is laying off 231 employees at its New Brunswick, NJ, headquarters effective December 27, 2024 according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice.
The company did not make an announcement regarding the layoffs.

Bayer is laying off 57 employees at its Whippany, NJ, headquarters effective December 27, 2024 according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice. The company did not make an announcement regarding the layoffs. Other recent cuts at Bayer include cutting 14 to 18 executive team members and eliminating 1,500 jobs, in May.

September 2024

Bristol Myers Squibb’s most recent layoffs in Lawrenceville, NJ, involve 79 employees, effective between December 12 and May 30, bringing the total number of positions cut at the site to 1,134, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices.

AGC Biologics, a CDMO, will lay off 95 employees, effective November 22, 2024 according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices. The company did not make an announcement regarding the layoffs.

Charles River Labs is laying off 3% of its workforce, or approximately 650 people. According to an Aug. 2 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, 13 workers in Frederick, MD, are being let go effective September 30.

April 2024

Bristol Myers Squibb in its 1Q results announced a Strategic Productivity Initiative aimed at $1.5 billion in cost savings by the end of 2025. This includes laying off more than 2,200 employees. The restructuring plans are across the business, including site closures and R&D spending, a reduction of management layers and reduce third-party spending.

Genentech plans to cut approximately 405 positions or 3% of its workforce across “several departments,” a spokesperson confirmed, as reported by Endpoints News. Earlier this year, parent company Roche announced cuts to its product development team.

Novartis plans to cut as many as 680 jobs within its development organization, which includes handling drug regulations, analytics, and support functions. Approximately 440 of these job cuts will be in Switzerland and as many as 240 in the U.S. The cuts are expected to take place over the next two to three years.

The job cuts are in addition to a restructuring program that would impact 8,000 of the company’s 78,000 global workforce, with approximately 3,000 of the roles currently in Switzerland and 2,000 in the U.S.

Sanofi’s pipeline reprioritization project to simplify its R&D structure will result in layoffs impacting an undisclosed number of positions. The company is shifting its focus to immunology.

Earlier this year Sanofi announced it will acquire Inhibrx for approximately $2.2 billion. Inhibrx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing biologic therapeutic candidates in oncology and orphan diseases leveraging its protein engineering platforms.

Boehringer Ingelheim plans to cut some of its U.S. salesforce due to poor sales of Cyltezo, its biosimilar version of AbbVie’s Humira.

The company plans to reduce its customer-facing teams in favor of a hybrid in-person and virtual sales model by June 30, in large part because pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) had kept branded Humira on their lists of medicines for reimbursement, as reported by Reuters. This has led to less uptake of biosimilar versions of Humira in the U.S.

The company, which has 53,000 employees worldwide, added that a “low double-digit number” of U.S. jobs were affected, as reported by Reuters.

Bayer, as part of a major restructuring announced January 2024, has reduced its executive suite from 14 to 8. Additionally, Bayer revealed in a WARN notice that it will lay off 90 employees at its U.S. headquarters in Whippany, NJ, effective June 19, as reported by Fierce Pharma. The layoffs were disclosed in a New Jersey Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.

Bristol Myers Squibb disclosed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) in California that 252 workers at the former Mirati Therapeutics headquarters in San Diego will be let go, effective April 22, as reported by Fierce Pharma. BMS completed its $4.8 billion acquisition of Mirati in January 2023, adding KRAZATI, an important lung cancer medicine, to its commercial portfolio.

GlaxoSmithKline plans to cut an undisclosed majority of former Bellus Health employees on March 31, according to a LinkedIn post from former Bellus CEO, Roberto Bellini. GSK acquired Bellus for $2 billion in 2023, gaining a Phase III candidate camlipixant, a P2X3 receptor antagonist in development to treat chronic cough.

Catalent, as part of ongoing restructuring initiatives, will lay off approximately 130 staffers at its manufacturing plant in Bloomington, IN, according to a company spokesperson. The Bloomington facility is one of Catalent’s three fill-finish sites, along with facilities in Anagni, Italy, and Brussels, Belgium. Novo Nordisk entered an agreement to acquire Catalent in an all-cash transaction that values Catalent at $16.5 billion. The acquisition is expected to close late in 2024.