Layoffs
2024 was a tough year for the biopharma industry, with several companies cutting hundreds or even thousands of employees. Follow along as BioSpace tracks job cuts and restructuring initiatives throughout 2025.
Biopharma leaders react to the forced resignation of CBER Head Peter Marks as RFK Jr.’s promised job cuts begin at the FDA; Novo Nordisk presents mixed results from oral semaglutide in cardiovascular disease; the EU’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use declines to recommend Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug; and pharma R&D returns grew in 2024.
Organon’s workforce cuts come several months after the company’s loss of exclusivity to its second-largest product, Atozet.
The latest cuts, which are part of a larger reduction of 10,000 at the Department of Health and Human Services, were reportedly underway Tuesday, with CDER Office of New Drugs Director Peter Stein added to the list of casualties.
Cell therapy and oncology–focused Carisma Therapeutics started layoffs late last year. Now the company plans to wind down fully.
The layoffs will take place throughout 2025 and will mostly affect Tenaya’s research and manufacturing operations. The company is continuing to test its hypertrophic cardiomyopathy gene therapy.
Arbutus is also exiting its corporate headquarters in Pennsylvania and will terminate all in-house scientific research. The company’s focus is now an RNAi asset for hepatitis B.
Biopharma employees reporting a positive business outlook for their companies dropped month over month but increased year over year in February, according to the Glassdoor Employee Confidence Index. Glassdoor’s findings align with recent BioSpace data.
As part of cost-cutting efforts, Alector is letting go of about 25 people as it focuses on advancing its preclinical and research pipeline. Alector is also continuing clinical-stage work on programs for frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Nearly half of BioSpace poll respondents recently took a biopharma job they were overqualified for, a finding that didn’t surprise a talent acquisition expert, who said it’s become much more likely to happen.
PRESS RELEASES
