Exelixis announced it will close its facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and lay off 130 employees companywide as it adjusts operations following a pandemic-era hiring surge. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice, 71 employees at the biotech’s Alameda, California, headquarters will be let go effective Oct. 27, while Fierce Biotech reports that 33 remote employees reporting to California-based managers are also affected.
The company noted that it hired many employees, including remote workers, during the pandemic to meet business needs and is now reorganizing to focus primarily on its Alameda operations. Exelixis expects to reopen many of the affected positions in new roles at its headquarters.
Indivior is reducing its workforce as part of its “Indivior Action Agenda,” a multi-year strategic initiative aimed at maximizing business potential. Announced in an SEC filing, the layoffs are expected to cost $16 million to $19 million in one-time severance payments.
In addition to the workforce reduction, Indivior will consolidate and reduce real estate assets, with one-time costs estimated between $15 million and $22 million. The company is exploring strategic alternatives for its opioid use disorder therapy Opvee, without specifying options. The initiative aims to eliminate non-essential activities and pursue investments to expand the U.S. market penetration of its long-acting injectables.
At the end of Q2, Indivior had $538 million in cash and investments and 1,094 employees as of the end of 2024.
Pfizer will cut 100 jobs at its Bothell, Washington site as part of broader cost-cutting efforts. The layoffs, which began Aug. 25, were noted in a WARN notice.
A company spokesperson said the reduction is part of Pfizer’s effort to improve R&D productivity and efficiency, while simplifying operations through digital enablement and automation. The Bothell site also houses the manufacturing facility for biologics products and R&D spaces previously used by Seagen, acquired by Pfizer in May 2023 for $43 billion.
Cell therapy company Appia Bio is shutting down operations after four years in business. CEO JeenJoo Kang announced the closure on Aug. 25, citing the lack of funding to continue patient testing.
Appia had nearly reached the point of filing its investigational new drug (IND) for clinical testing. The company focused on developing CAR-engineered natural killer T cells for patient treatment. Previously, Kite partnered with Appia in 2021 on stem cell-derived therapies for hematologic cancers, with a potential $875 million value, but the partnership ended in 2024.
New York–based LB Pharmaceuticals announced the sector’s first IPO in six months on Monday. On Aug. 22, the company said in an SEC filing that it had undergone a reduction in force (RIF) in May to extend the company’s cash runway.
The company did not say how many employees were affected by the RIF, only that it involved letting go the company’s chief financial and science officers. The move will also cost the company about $700,000 related to severance and termination charges. “This initiative is intended to enhance our ability to allocate resources efficiently as we focus on advancing LB-102 and other high-priority development programs,” the company wrote, referring to its lead molecule aimed at treating schizophrenia.
Australian multinational CSL is parting ways with 15% of its workforce as part of a sweeping restructuring push, with an eye toward streamlining its operations and boosting its clinical and commercial performance.
As part of this strategic initiative, CSL will also spin off its vaccines business, CSL Seqirus, into its own independent entity, effective before its 2026 financial year ends in June next year. The pharma will also cut back on its overall expenditure, “including consolidation of R&D footprint,” according to its full fiscal year earnings report on Tuesday.
For the 12 months ending June 30, 2025, CSL had more than 29,000 full-time employees, as per its annual report. This means that around 4,350 people could be affected by this latest round of layoffs.
In April, Opthea revealed that it would be reducing its headcount by 65% as it reels from two discontinued Phase III studies, but on Aug. 18, the Australian biotech revealed that the cuts would be steeper, affecting more than 80% of its employees. The company had 49 full-time employees as of the end of last year, as per an SEC filing in February. After these cuts, it is likely that Opthea has at most 10 staffers left.
As part of this restructuring effort, CEO Fred Guerard will step down effective Sept. 1. Chief financial officer Tom Reilly and director Sujal Shah will also leave Opthea, effective Sept. 15. The biotech will also downsize its board of directors by more than 50%.
Directors who will stay onboard after the purge will conduct a full strategic review of Opthea’s business over the next six months, including looking at its internal development, strategic partners and the return of capital to shareholders. Opthea will also be renegotiating contracts related to its clinical trials.
Bausch Health has laid off 49 employees in Petaluma, California, and is closing that site, according to a WARN Act notice. The reductions, effective Aug. 13, represent a small portion of the Canada-based company’s workforce, which totaled approximately 20,700 employees—including 8,100 in the U.S. and Canada—at the end of 2024, per its annual report.
The company, known for manufacturing branded and generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter products, made headlines in April after adopting a “poison pill” shareholder rights plan. This plan is triggered when any entity acquires at least 20% of voting shares, a threshold reached by activist investor Carl Icahn, who acquired a 34% stake in Bausch.
Vedanta Biosciences announced a failed Phase II study for its investigational bacterial consortium VE202 in ulcerative colitis, alongside layoffs affecting 23 employees, representing roughly 20% of its staff, according to CEO Bernat Olle. The company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported that the mid-stage COLLECTiVE202 study showed no significant improvements in endoscopic or clinical response with VE202 treatment.
Vedanta continues to evaluate other outcomes, including bacterial colonization, histological findings, and immune responses, with results expected at upcoming scientific meetings.
Abata Therapeutics is winding down operations, a spokesperson from Third Rock Ventures confirmed. The decision was attributed to challenges in the current fundraising environment, though specific details were not disclosed. Founded in 2021 with $95 million in initial funding, Abata focused on regulatory T cell therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.
In July 2024, the FDA approved an IND application for Abata’s ABA-101 candidate for multiple sclerosis, and the company received an equity investment from Bristol Myers Squibb to support development.
Generation Bio is set to lay off approximately 90% of its workforce amid financial difficulties that threaten its ability to continue clinical development of its lipid nanoparticle platform. The restructuring will occur in phases from mid-August through October, initially retaining the core R&D team before eventual reductions.
At the end of 2024, Generation Bio had 115 employees. After a 20% reduction in January 2025, the company may currently have 92 staffers, meaning the upcoming layoffs could impact roughly 83 employees.
In a move to enhance business efficiency, Absci is laying off a small, undisclosed number of employees, according to a company spokesperson cited by Fierce Biotech on Aug. 11. At the end of 2024, the biotech employed 157 people, per its annual report.
In its Q2 report on Aug. 12, Absci offered no further layoff details, stating only that it is pursuing “platform improvements and operational efficiencies.” As of June 30, the company had $117.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Coupled with $64 million in gross proceeds from a July public stock offering, Absci now expects to operate into the first half of 2028.
Absci entered the clinical stage in May, with its lead candidate, ABS-101—an anti-TL1A monoclonal antibody—being tested in a Phase I trial for inflammatory bowel diseases. An interim readout is expected this year. The biotech is also developing ABS-201, an anti-PRLR antibody for androgenic alopecia, with a Phase I/IIa trial targeted for early 2026.
Fate Therapeutics is cutting 12% of its workforce in an effort to extend its cash runway through the end of 2027, according to its Aug. 12 Q2 earnings report. With 181 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, this reduction could impact roughly 22 people.
The layoffs, expected to conclude in Q3, will cost between $900,000 and $1.2 million in severance and other termination-related expenses, as per an SEC filing. Fate ended Q2 with $248.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.
The company’s clinical pipeline includes two Phase I CAR T candidates: FT819, targeting CD19 for autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases, and FT825, targeting HER2/EGFR for solid tumors.
ORIC Pharmaceuticals is reducing its headcount by 20% to better align its operational and financial resources, according to its Aug. 12 Q2 earnings report. The affected employees are from the company’s discovery research group. With 128 full-time staff as of June 30, about 26 people are expected to be impacted.
As of Q2’s end, ORIC held $436.4 million in cash, equivalents, and investments, bolstered by a $125 million placement in May and $119 million from an at-the-market facility. The restructuring is projected to support operations into the second half of 2028.
This runway should enable ORIC to reach multiple milestones, including a Q1 2026 readout for PRC2 inhibitor ORIC-944 in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and later that year, first-line data for brain-penetrant enozertinib in non-small cell lung cancer.
Merck will lay off 58 employees at its Rahway, New Jersey, headquarters on Nov. 14, per a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing. The move follows the company’s announcement that a $3 billion cost-cutting initiative could affect about 6,000 employees—roughly 8% of its global workforce—over several years.
The layoffs are part of Merck’s strategy to support the upcoming launches of 20 new products, with affected roles spanning administration, sales, and R&D.
NextRNA Therapeutics is shutting down operations, according to a LinkedIn post by co-founder and CEO Dominique Verhelle. No reason was provided for the closure. The Boston-based biotech reportedly employed between 11 and 50 people.
Founded in 2021 and launched in 2022 with $56 million in funding, NextRNA focused on developing therapies for diseases driven by long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), particularly in oncology and neuroscience. In 2023, the company entered a collaboration and license agreement with Bayer to develop small molecule therapeutics targeting lncRNAs in oncology.
Verhelle noted the challenges of working in a nascent field but expressed hope that NextRNA’s work would inspire further exploration in the space.
In a bid to reduce operating costs by around 30%, Bicycle Therapeutics is downsizing by approximately 25%, the U.K.-based biotech announced Friday alongside its second quarter business report. The layoffs, together with other strategic realignment initiatives, will keep Bicycle going into 2028 and enable the biotech to “weather continued market uncertainty,” according to a company news release.
At the end of 2024, Bicycle had 305 full-time employees, most of whom work at its site in the U.K., while around 120 report to its location in Cambridge, Massachusetts. None of its staff are represented by unions or are part of collective bargaining agreements, according to its 2024 annual report. Severance and other benefits-related payments associated with the layoffs will cost Bicycle $5.3 million.
Also on Friday, Bicycle reported that Roche subsidiary Genentech ended a 2020 immuno-oncology partnership that involved a $30 million upfront payment from Roche, plus the promise of up to $1.7 billion in milestones. Genentech had exercised its option for various programs under this collaboration, including one in 2022 that triggered a $10 million payment to Bicycle.
Even after securing more than $175 million in Series B proceeds in January, Tune Therapeutics is parting ways with 17 employees, or approximately a quarter of its staff, according to STAT News. The layoffs follow a strategic review initiated by new CEO John McHutchison, who was appointed in March.
Tune is developing epigenome editing therapies, making targeted changes to DNA packaging to control gene expression. Its lead program, TUNE-401, is an epigenetic silencer in Phase Ib trials for chronic hepatitis B. The company initiated the trial in November 2023.
Months after lowering full-year guidance, Iovance Biotherapeutics has reduced headcount by fewer than 20%, according to Endpoints News. The company stated that the restructuring will extend its cash runway and support its tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte cell therapy pipeline.
Iovance had 878 employees at the end of 2024. In Q1 2025, product revenue was $49.3 million, mostly from skin cancer drug Amtagvi. Full-year 2025 sales guidance was cut to $250–$300 million from $450–$475 million. As of March 31, the company had $366 million in cash and equivalents.
Precision BioSciences has terminated an undisclosed number of employees to extend its cash runway into the second half of 2027. The layoffs, initiated in July and announced Aug. 6, are expected to reduce annual operating expenses by around $25 million in 2026 and 2027.
As of March 31, Precision had about $100 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash. The cuts will help advance its hepatitis B and Duchenne muscular dystrophy programs. Also on Aug. 6, the company reported mixed Phase I data for its HBV asset.
Following its acquisition by Roche, Poseida Therapeutics is laying off 52 employees from its San Diego location, according to a WARN Act notice. The layoffs take effect Oct. 1, though it is unclear if they are directly tied to the acquisition.
Roche acquired Poseida for $1 billion upfront plus up to $500 million in contingent value rights. The acquisition centers on P-BCMA-ALLO1, a CAR T therapy for multiple myeloma that achieved an 82% overall response rate in Phase I trials.
Alltrna, a Flagship Pioneering startup developing tRNA-based therapies, is cutting eight jobs—about 12% of its workforce—leaving 58 employees. The layoffs come as the company prepares for clinical entry.
Founded in 2021 with $50 million from Flagship and bolstered by a $109 million Series B in August 2023, Alltrna is advancing therapies for Stop Codon Disease. Its lead asset, in IND-enabling studies, targets an arginine mutation causing liver-related genetic diseases.
BioNTech is laying off 90 employees across its U.S. operations as it adapts to a post-COVID market. The cuts include 58 roles in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 32 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, effective Sept. 16. Layoffs in Germany are also under consideration.
The company cited strategic alignment, operational efficiency, and sustainable value creation as reasons for the workforce changes.
Bayer CEO Bill Anderson announced further workforce cuts following the 2,000 layoffs disclosed in Q1 2025 and approximately 11,000 since its reorganization began in July 2023. Employee numbers have fallen from 96,567 at the end of Q2 2024 to 89,556 at the end of Q2 2025, a 7.3% drop.
Anderson expects additional reductions over the next 18 months as part of the ongoing restructuring.
Following the collapse of two financing deals and the termination of a license agreement with AbbVie’s Allergan Aesthetics, Sirona Biochem announced on Aug. 1 that it will liquidate TFChem, its wholly owned French subsidiary. Operations at the lab have ceased and the facility is now permanently closed.
While the company did not disclose the number of affected employees, TFChem’s LinkedIn profile lists a staff size of two to 10 people, indicating a small workforce. Vancouver-based Sirona noted that a convertible debenture financing deal from April 22 failed due to lack of investor interest, and an investment agreement with Promura GmbH never materialized as expected.
Additionally, AbbVie’s Allergan Aesthetics will not proceed with a 2022 license agreement to commercialize Sirona’s skin care compound TFC-1067, developed to treat hyperpigmentation. Highlighting its ongoing financial challenges, Sirona disclosed that its Vancouver management team has operated without salaries for two years and contributed personal funds to keep operations running. The company is now exploring structural and financial strategies to support future technology development.
Merck plans to cut approximately 6,000 employees, representing around 8% of its global workforce, as part of its previously announced $3 billion cost-cutting initiative.
The scope of the layoffs, including potential site closures, remains unclear. The news, initially reported by Fierce Pharma and Endpoints News on July 31, has not yet been independently confirmed by Merck, according to BioSpace.
The job reductions come shortly after Merck’s July 29 earnings call, where CEO Rob Davis outlined plans to redirect the $3 billion in savings toward research and development and to support the launch of up to 20 new products.
Moderna will reduce its global workforce by 10%, bringing its headcount below 5,000, according to a note CEO Stéphane Bancel sent to employees on July 31. The move comes amid broader efforts to cut costs and reshape the company's operating structure.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based mRNA pioneer aims to reduce its annual operating expenses by approximately $1.5 billion by 2027. While prior cost-saving actions included scaling down R&D, renegotiating supply contracts, and lowering manufacturing costs, Bancel said the company has now turned to workforce reductions.
“Every effort was made to avoid affecting jobs,” Bancel wrote. “But today, reshaping our operating structure and aligning our cost structure to the realities of our business are essential to remain focused and financially disciplined, while continuing to invest in our science on the path to 2027.”
