In a good-news-bad-news week for Biogen, the company will cut an undisclosed number of employees, just as a higher dose of its Ionis-partnered therapy Spinraza for spinal muscular atrophy will be considered by the FDA and EMA.
Biogen will be laying off an undisclosed number of employees from its research unit, a company spokesperson confirmed to BioSpace on Thursday.
Also Thursday morning, the company announced positive news with the acceptance of a supplemental new drug application for higher-dose Spinraza, an Ionis-partnered drug for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), by the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The layoffs, first reported by Endpoints News, come as Biogen’s stock languishes in a five-year low. The company is looking to “reinvigorate” its drug discovery machinery, according to the spokesperson. “The aim is to be more agile, efficient, and effective to deliver more viable drug candidates to the clinic.”
Thursday’s workforce reduction is among the first sweeping strategic moves by new research head Jane Grogan, who took charge of the department in October 2023.
Grogan, who was previously chief scientific officer at Graphite Bio, was appointed amid Biogen’s aggressive cost-cutting program announced in July 2023, which put around 1,000 jobs—or approximately 11% of the company’s headcount—on the chopping block. The layoffs are expected to continue this year, with an eye toward saving $1 billion in operating expenses.
In a letter sent to her team that was shared with BioSpace by a company spokesperson, Grogan explained that the layoffs followed an “extensive assessment” that she and her team conducted in recent months. Grogan also highlighted the “need for Biogen to accelerate timelines from drug discovery to proof of concept.”
Biogen is rolling out its new research strategy as its stock price continues a protracted slide. The company is trading at a five-year low of around $140 per share. Prospects also look dim for the company as its headline asset, the Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi, struggles to secure a foothold in the market.
In November 2024, Biogen’s development and commercialization partner Eisai lowered its forecasts for Leqembi, which the Japanese biotech now expects to earn just under $280 million for the full fiscal year 2024, as opposed to a prior guidance of approximately $370 million. At the time, Truist Securities analysts called Leqembi’s launch “underwhelming,” while Stifel analysts said that the drug’s slow start has made investors “impatient and skeptical.”
This overall sentiment of skepticism—among both shareholders and analysts—manifested at the recently concluded 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, where Biogen executives had to deflect mounting urgency from investors to strike another deal.
“There’s the sentiment that we have to do a deal, and I think what I want to clarify is that that’s just our everyday business,” head of development Priya Singhal told BioSpace on the sidelines of JPM. “We’re always looking at internal and external innovation. But do we believe that a deal at any cost is critical to drive Biogen growth? That’s not the case, because we believe that we are really positioned very well.”
Still, the company did initiate one potential deal of note last week, proposing to buy its development partner Sage Therapeutics for around $469 million. Though this offer is, according to Biogen, approximately a 30% premium to Sage’s share price, the biotech appears ruffled by the unsolicited proposal. Last week, Sage sued Biogen in a Delaware court.
But Biogen also saw a ray of positive news this week, announcing Thursday that a higher dose of Ionis-partnered Spinraza could soon be available for patients with SMA thanks to an sNDA acceptance by both the FDA and EMA. The applications are supported by an extension of the DEVOTE Phase II/III trial testing a 50/28 mg regimen in children and adults who transitioned from the 12 mg approved version of Spinraza.
“Results from the DEVOTE study have shown us that the higher dose regimen of nusinersen can enable meaningful clinical benefits while maintaining a safety profile broadly consistent with the approved 12 mg regimen,” Thomas Crawford, co-director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in Biogen’s press release.
