Weeks after announcing a CEO shake-up and slightly decreased Q1 revenues, BMS plans to cut 48 staff members from its Princeton, NJ, facility.
Pictured: White and pink BMS logo on blue and white building/hapabapa/iStock
Bristol Myers Squibb plans to lay off 48 staff members from its Princeton, New Jersey, facility, according to a WARN notice filed in April with the state of New Jersey.
The cuts will go into effect on May 31. Though no other information was provided in the WARN report about which divisions will be affected, the facility houses employees from the commercial, R&D and enabling function support teams, according to the company’s website.
BMS did not publish a press release or any other documentation publicly announcing the layoffs other than the WARN notice. In an email statement sent to BioSpace, a BMS spokesperson said the layoffs are a result of the pharma’s ever-changing business model.
“Bristol Myers Squibb’s business model is constantly evolving to support our mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases,” the spokesperson said. “As we move forward in 2023, we are continuing to deliver on our long-term business strategy by aligning resources to best support our operating model and our portfolio evolution.”
BMS has unveiled several changes to its business strategy over the last few weeks. On April 26, the company announced that its current CEO, Giovanni Caforio, will retire on Nov. 1. Christopher Boerner, chief commercialization officer at BMS, has been promoted to executive vice president, chief operating officer, and will succeed Caforio as CEO upon his retirement.
On April 27, BMS released its Q1, 2023 results, revealing that its total sales came in at $11.34 billion, down slightly from the $11.65 billion it brought in during Q1, 2022. However, revenues for the company’s new product portfolio increased 8% to $9.3 billion, primarily due to sales of Opdualag, Abecma and Reblozyl, Seeking Alpha reported.
This most recent round of cuts comes nearly eight months after BMS last announced plans to implement layoffs. In September, the company revealed plans to cut 261 jobs in two different sites in San Diego.
Following that announcement, a BMS spokesperson told BioSpace those cuts were related to the company’s $4.1 billion buyout of Turning Point Therapeutics in August.
“As part of the integration, all incoming employees received retention packages tied to continued service to BMS for a period of time and have been encouraged to apply to long-term roles at BMS after their retention period ends,” the spokesperson said at the time.
