Bristol Myers Squibb is continuing its cost-savings measures with layoffs in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The company announced earlier this year that it will eliminate 2,200 jobs by the end of 2024 in a bid to save $1.5 billion through 2025.
Bristol Myers Squibb’s latest layoffs in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, bring the total number of employees being cut there this year and in 2025 to 1,134, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices. The most recent workforce reduction involves 79 employees who will leave the company between Dec. 12 and May 30.
The latest WARN notice did not state if both BMS locations in Lawrenceville are affected. The company’s headquarters and a 650,000-square-foot facility with commercial and late-stage development teams are in the city.
BMS confirmed to Fierce Pharma that the dismissals are part of its previously announced cuts. In April, the company’s first-quarter 2024 earnings report revealed it would implement a “strategic productivity initiative” to generate about $1.5 billion in cost savings through 2025. The initiative includes eliminating about 2,200 jobs by the end of 2024. According to BMS, it will use the savings to fund innovation, focusing on R&D programs that have the highest potential return on investment and with an eye toward long-term growth.
The company has faced multiple challenges this year. According to its first-quarter results, the CAR T therapy Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) took a 44% year-over-year sales hit, while Opdivo (nivolumab), a biologic therapy for lung cancer, had a 6% drop in sales. Notably, BMS is facing a patent cliff for Opdivo, although it may not take as big a hit as a small molecule going off-patent. Eduardo Schur, EY US health sciences & wellness commercial strategy and R&D lead, told BioSpace that due to the expense of developing biosimilars, there are often fewer competitors looking to challenge originator sales.
In good news for the company, the FDA in April approved use of Abecma as an earlier-line treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. And in September, BMS announced that after 10 years, 43% of patients who took its Opdivo and Yervoy combo for melanoma were alive, according to new long-term Phase III results presented at the annual European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Barcelona.
The WARN notices for BMS’ Lawrenceville employees began in March. According to the first notice, 75 people were to lose their jobs starting in April and ending in December. There were two WARN notices in May, for 87 people and for 776 people. Those cuts will all be complete by Dec. 16. The next notice, in July, identified 177 people in the city would be let go starting in October and going through next year.
