Big Pharma companies Bayer and Johnson & Johnson are downsizing their New Jersey workforces while Pfizer cuts jobs in Ireland. Many of the layoffs are effective by the end of the year.
Three Big Pharma companies are at the center of layoffs totaling nearly 500 combined cuts, with Bayer and Johnson & Johnson downsizing the workforces at their New Jersey headquarters and Pfizer eliminating manufacturing jobs in Ireland.
J&J is letting go 231 employees in New Brunswick, while Bayer is cutting 57 employees in Whippany, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices. Both companies’ cuts are effective Dec. 27.
Meanwhile, New York–based Pfizer will cut up to 210 manufacturing jobs across sites in Grange Castle, Newbridge and Ringaskiddy, The Irish Times reported. Some cuts are happening before the end of this year and others in 2025, according to the Times.
J&J Layoffs Follow 340B, Patent Challenges
J&J did not formally announce its layoffs or the reasons for them. However, according to Fierce Pharma, a company spokesperson’s emailed statement noted that to continue meeting patient needs worldwide, the organization must adapt and evolve “in the midst of a complex and rapidly changing environment.”
The layoffs are not J&J’s only challenge in recent weeks. On Sept. 30, the company announced it would not implement controversial changes to how it offers drug discounts to hospitals under the 340B program. The move came not longer after the Health Resources and Services Administration threatened sanctions over the planned changes. J&J was going to require hospitals and other beneficiaries to purchase its covered products—the anti-inflammatory therapy Stelara and the anticoagulant Xarelto—at full price and receive rebates later rather than offer price cuts upfront.
Stelara is at the center of another challenge for the company, one it’s been addressing. The drug that had $10.9 billion in sales last year came off patent in September 2023, and competitors can start selling biosimilars in 2025. To cushion the blow, J&J developed Tremfya, an alternative treatment to Stelara. In September, the FDA approved the drug for use in adult patients with moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis.
Bayer Cuts Are Latest of Several Workforce Reductions in 2024
Like J&J, Bayer did not formally announce its cuts or the reasons for them. However, Fierce Pharma reported that according to a company spokesperson’s statement, the pharma is adopting a new operating model whose organizational structure will “enable more agility, empower employees to innovate and act, deepen the focus on our mission.”
This is not the first time Bayer has let go employees at its Whippany headquarters. According to a May WARN notice, 35 employees were laid off effective Aug. 29. Other notable Bayer layoffs this year include the company cutting its executive team from 14 to eight members in March and eliminating 1,500 jobs, mostly management positions, in May.
The latest disclosed cuts come less than two months after the pharma released second-quarter earnings results that showed it had $12.15 billion in revenue, ahead of the consensus analyst forecast of about $12.05 billion, according to analytics firm Vara Research. In addition, Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said the consumer health division had “returned to growth,” with sales increasing 5.3% to $1.59 billion.
Pfizer Layoffs Follow U.S. Cuts, Oxbryta Withdrawal
Pfizer also did not formally announce its cuts or the reasons for them. However, The Irish Times reported the layoffs amount to just under 5% of the company’s manufacturing workforce in Ireland. It also reported that a spokesperson for Pfizer’s Irish business told the newspaper that the company recently launched a multiyear, multiphased program designed to assess manufacturing efficiency and find operational efficiencies “to increase productivity within the network.”
“As part of this process, we’ve conducted a series of evaluations and have proposed a reduction in the number of people supporting our overall manufacturing operations in Ireland,” the spokesperson told the Times.
Pfizer has been trimming its U.S. workforce as well, with more cuts expected in the future. According to a July WARN notice, the company let go 150 employees from its Sanford, North Carolina, facility and 60 from its Rocky Mount, North Carolina, site, effective July 31. That workforce reduction followed a May 2024 SEC filing where Pfizer detailed plans to cut costs by $1.5 billion by the end of 2027. It noted it expects to incur about $1.7 billion in one-time costs—primarily due to severance pay and implementation fees—as part of the first phase of a multiyear program designed to “reduce our cost of goods sold.”
In addition to layoffs, Pfizer is dealing with the aftermath of its late September market withdrawal of sickle cell therapy Oxbryta. The sudden move, which followed a European Medicines Agency review of the product regarding an observed imbalance of fatalities, has left patients and healthcare providers with limited treatment options.
