Fierce Biotech Layoff Tracker 2026: Clinuvel cuts fifth of staff; Novartis loses 322 workers

Biotech Fierce Biotech Layoff Tracker 2026: Clinuvel cuts fifth of staff; Novartis loses 322 workers By Gabrielle Masson, James Waldron, Will Maddox, Darren Incorvaia Jul 23, 2026 9:00am biotech layoffs layoffs Big Pharma Restructure Welcome to Fierce Biotech’s fifth annual layoff tracker, a resource designed to keep pace with the sector’s steady stream of workforce reductions. In 2025, industry layoffs continued to rise year over year, prompting the need for another edition of this article. As always, please reach out to the Fierce Biotech editorial team with any news of a biopharma workforce reduction. We are committed to protecting the anonymity of all tips, but we do conduct further reviews to verify all information we receive. Editor’s note about the numbers: Layoff rounds that are part of a company’s larger, already-announced reorganization are not included in the monthly total count. July—2 companies July 23 - Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals: The Australian biopharma moving its headquarters to the U.S., but up to a fifth of the company’s workforce won’t be staying for the trans-pacific pivot. Story July 7 - Novartis. The latest round of layoffs at the Swiss pharma's U.S. headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey sees 322 pink slips sent out, mainly affecting the field sales, patient support and marketing organizations. Story July 6 - Genentech. A month after confirming the restructuring of its early development group (see June entry below), the Roche subsidiary has now disclosed that this change has formed part of a round of 103 layoffs. Story June—8 companies June 29 - BioCryst: A month after ending the development of its diabetic macular edema treatment avoralstat, the company announced it was shuttering all internal discovery programs to focus on external innovation and partnerships. The change will result in the closure of BioCryst's Discovery Center of Excellence facility in Birmingham, Alabama by the end of this year, though the biopharma didn't share how many positions would be impacted. Story June 26 - Biogen: About a month after finalizing its Apellis buyout, Biogen is shrinking the R&D vision of the acquired biotech. The company is ending most of Apellis’ research programs and eliminating a “small number” of research roles, a spokesperson told Fierce. The changes will allow Biogen to focus on Apellis’ approved drugs Syfovre and Empaveli. Story June 24 - ADC Therapeutics: In the wake of a recent safety scare in a confirmatory trial of its antibody-drug conjugate Zynlonta, the Swiss ADC specialist unveiled a reorganization scheme that includes layoffs for around 17% of the company's global workforce. Story June 23 - Sangamo Therapeutics: The beleaguered genomic medicine biotech is selling off assets to Eli Lilly and Astellas Pharma while also saying goodbye to around 51 employees as part of a bankruptcy process. Story June 15 - enGene: As enGene works toward a potential FDA filing for its bladder cancer gene therapy detalimogene, the company is trimming ranks to preserve cash. In a Monday release, the company detailed plans to cut half its workforce. It's also parting ways with several high-profile execs. The cuts are intended to allow the company to stay nimble until it can get its hands on 12-month data for the candidate and meet with the FDA regarding a Biologics License Application. EnGene anticipates submitting an approval filing for the gene therapy prospect this year. Release June 15 - Neumora Therapeutics: Alongside reporting Monday that navacaprant failed a pair of phase 3 trials, Neumora said it's cutting around 35% of its staff. The reductions are aimed at saving around $10 million annually, with one-time reorganization expenses projected to hit $2 million. Neumora is now focusing on assets in Alzheimer's disease agitation, schizophrenia and obesity. Story June 11 - Genentech: Vice presidents Vishva Dixit, M.D., Man-Wah Tan, Ph.D., and Todd McDevitt, Ph.D., were among the casualties in another round of layoffs at the South San Francisco subsidiary of Roche. The departures are part of a restructuring of the Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED) group. A spokesperson would not confirm how many positions are affected, but said “targeted adjustments” are being made to “ensure our capabilities and investments are aligned with our core therapeutic areas and portfolio priorities.” StoryJune 4 - Fulcrum Therapeutics: After scrapping its only clinical-stage program following a hardline stance from the FDA, the sickle cell disease-focused biotech is drastically reducing its workforce by 85% as it begins searching for strategic alternatives. Filing and Story May—4 companies May 15 - Novartis: After a series of staff consolidation moves in recent weeks, the Swiss pharma is again trimming its ranks, albeit in what appears to be a more limited move centered on the drugmaker’s biomedical research arm. Story May 13 - Valneva: The French vaccine maker's “further restructuring plan [is] designed to streamline its global business operations.” It comes against the backdrop of “an emerging adverse trend in travel vaccine uptake across key markets,” and will include a reduction in global headcount of between 10% and 15%. Story May 13 - Takeda: The Japanese pharma filled in details on its 2026 “transformation program,” which looks to centralize corporate functions, reduce management layers and target process simplification. The multiyear slim-down is expected to hit about 4,500 roles during the 2026 fiscal year. Story May 13 - Gilead: With the ink now dry on the $7.8 billion buyout of CAR-T biotech Arcellx, Gilead will lay off 108 workers from Arcellx’s site at 800 Bridge Parkway in Redwood City, CA, and 84 employees at the 800 King Farm Boulevard site in Rockville, MD. Story May 5 - BioNTech: In the face of shrinking COVID-19 vaccine sales, German company BioNTech is slashing its manufacturing footprint, cutting 1,860 jobs while pulling out of its manufacturing sites in Singapore, the German cities of Idar-Oberstein and Marburg as well as at its CureVac subsidiary’s former headquarters in Tübingen. Story April—4 companies April 30 - Autolus Therapeutics: The CAR-T cell therapy outfit is shrinking its staff by 13% across the business as part of a plan to cut costs. The cuts will “enhance our margins, support scalable growth, and position Autolus for long-term value creation,” CEO Christian Itin, Ph.D., said. Release April 28 - Passage Bio: After some tough feedback from the FDA on the path forward for its lead gene therapy, Passage Bio has launched a strategic review and set out a plan to whittle down its headcount by 75%. Story April 21 - Replimune: The oncology biotech is shedding an additional 161 employees, or 60% of its workers, across two Massachusetts sites as the fallout continues from another FDA rejection of its lead melanoma candidate. Story April 14 - Astellas Pharma: The Japanese pharma is preparing to close the Seattle site of its stem cell therapy unit, with around 55 employees set to be impacted. Story April 13 - Replimune: After facing a "disappointing" second rejection for its melanoma prospect, the Massachusetts biotech is saying goodbye to 63 employees. Story March—16 companies March 31 - Iterum Therapeutics: The antibiotic specialist has started winding down its operations, citing limited cash amid the expensive commercialization of its only approved product, Orlynvah. Story March 31 - IO Biotech: After its cancer vax was spurned by the FDA and following deep layoffs, IO Biotech is closing up shop for good, terminating all employees and executives. Story March 31 - Lipella Pharmaceuticals: The Pittsburgh-based company's ambition to develop the first treatment for an inflammatory mouth condition has reached the end of the road, with the biotech filing for bankruptcy. Story March 30 - Takeda: Takeda plans to cut 634 jobs in the U.S. as part of a massive restructuring designed to save the company more than 200 billion Japanese yen ($1.26 billion) annually. The roles are assigned to the company’s U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and include 247 that are currently located in the Bay State, according to a WARN notice. Employee notifications have begun, but the changes will not take effect until July 2026, after new CEO Julie Kim officially takes the helm. Story March 17 - Gossamer Bio: The biotech is cutting its workforce by 48% after the company’s phase 3 study of seralutinib in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension missed its primary endpoint. Gossamer is evaluating strategic options and conserving cash with the 77-role reduction. Source March 17 - Bicycle Therapeutics: The biotech is letting more air out of its operations, with plans to deflate its employee count by about 30% and shelve its lead anti-cancer drug conjugate. The reprioritization is meant to halve yearly operating costs and will likely impact about 86 roles. Story March 12 - Inovio: The Pennsylvania-based biotech said it had "eliminated roles that don't directly support" its primary goal of securing approval for its rare disease drug INO-3107. Annual reports from the company show the number of employees dropped to 112 people from a February 2025 figure of 134. Story March 12 - Vistagen: The Bay Area biotech is doubling down on its lead social anxiety candidate despite a phase 3 trial failure last December. The company is laying off about 20% of its staff to ensure it has the cash to finish another ongoing phase 3 trial of the anti-anxiety nasal spray candidate. Story March 11 - Amgen: The California-based pharma is laying off 22 staffers from Horizon Therapeutics by early May, according to a Maryland WARN alert. Back in 2023, Amgen acquired the rare disease company in a $27.8 billion transaction. "We are making organizational changes that will affect some roles at our Rockville research and development location," an Amgen spokesperson told Fierce. "These changes are part of a broader effort to align our operations with our research strategy to best serve our patients. We are working to support impacted employees through this transition." Source March 10 - Evotec: The German company is escalating its already substantial reorganization, with plans to lay off 800 employees and shutter four sites in the next two years. Story March 10 - f5 Therapeutics: The Molecular glue-focused biotech f5 Therapeutics has failed to stick around for the long haul, shuttering after six years. According to LinkedIn, the biotech employed up to 10 employees. Story March 6 - Vertex Pharmaceuticals: The pharma has laid off about 20 staffers in Massachusetts as part of a "functional reorganization," a spokesperson told Fierce Biotech, though overall Vertex's workforce in the state "continues to grow." March 5 - Alltrna: After laying off 10% of its team last August, Flagship Pioneering-backed Alltrna is reducing its workforce by 19 people, or about 34%. The decision was made to “position Alltrna for success as we accelerate toward the clinic with our first engineered tRNA drug candidate,” a spokesperson told Fierce. Story March 3 - EveryOne Medicines: The individualized medicines biotech has closed its doors, according to Endpoints News, impacting an unknown number of workers. The shutdown comes of the heels of FDA details surrounding its new approval pathway for bespoke gene therapies, guidance that fell below EveryOne's expectations, a person familiar with the matter told Endpoints. Source March 3 - Theravance Biopharma: Following the phase 3 failure of its rare blood pressure disorder drug, the Dublin- and San Francisco-based biotech is cutting 50% of its employees, shutting down its R&D department and focusing commercial activity on its approved COPD treatment. The company said layoffs will be implemented over the following two quarters. Story March 2 - BioAtla: The San Diego-based company is laying off 70% of its workforce as the antibody biotech mulls whether to sell off its remaining assets. Story February—9 organizations Feb. 27 - Disc Medicine: After an FDA rebuff, the rare disease biotech is laying off a fifth of its workforce, or about 30 people. The layoffs, which Disc expects to be completed in the second quarter, will primarily affect commercial roles and “certain supporting functions,” the company said. Story Feb. 27 - Merck & Co.: Facing vaccine pressures in multiple markets, the pharma is pruning the ranks at one of its key U.S. production facilities. In a WARN alert, Merck revealed that it is laying off 147 staffers at its vaccine manufacturing plant in Durham, plus seven other employees who report to a different address in the city, which is part of North Carolina’s Research Triangle region. Story Feb. 26 - Viatris: After kicking off an enterprise-wide strategic review a year ago, Viatris plans to cut its global workforce of 32,000 by about 10% over the next three years. The company aims to save $600 million to $700 million annually once the plan is complete. Story Feb. 17 - Concerto Biosciences: The microbial-focused biotech is laying off an undisclosed number of staffers as it turns its focus to consumer products and applications, according to a statement shared by the company. New discovery and development work will fit into this consumer focus, prompting a workforce reduction to "better align" Concerto's resources with the shift. Feb. 12 - Ultragenyx: Employees at the biopharma had already been warned at the end of December that the failure of a pair of phase 3 studies for its brittle bone disease candidate meant cost cutting was coming. It turns out this will involve laying off around 130 employees—equivalent to 10% of the company's total headcount. Story Feb. 12 - Seres Therapeutics: Just months after laying off a quarter of its workforce to focus resources on a phase 2 study of its bloodstream infection preventive treatment SER-155, Seres announced that it will shrink its headcount by a further 30% and halt investment in that trial. Instead, the company “will shift its operational focus to high-value earlier-stage pipeline programs.” Story Feb. 5 - ARPA-H: The federal research agency, which is designed to drive medical breakthroughs, has laid off an undisclosed number of staffers. "To ensure the agency remains focused on this, ARPA-H continuously evaluates its operations and has adjusted the term appointments of certain staff to better align with mission needs and research priorities," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told Fierce Biotech. "These steps better position ARPA-H to deliver transformational health innovations." Feb. 2 - GSK: The U.K. pharma is trimming its R&D team, a move expected to affect fewer than 50 workers in the U.K. and fewer than 70 staffers in the U.S. The ultimate number of cuts is still subject to change as the reorganization is finalized, but no more than 350 jobs in total will be affected, a company spokesperson told Fierce. Story Feb. 2 - Thermo Fisher Scientific: An ongoing layoff spree now includes a fresh set of cuts tied to a site that is shuttering in Franklin, Massachusetts. A company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma that the number of layoffs will be capped at 80 staffers. The site currently employs approximately 200 people. Following the cuts, the company expects the remaining roughly 120 employees to relocate to other facilities within the state. Story January—11 companies Jan. 30 - Bitterroot Bio: The California cardio-immunology company is restructuring as it goes from the clinic back to preclinical work, according to a post from departing CEO Pavan Cheruvu, M.D. The leader, alongside "many" other team members, will be impacted as Bitterroot turns "to focus on discovery biology and translational research," according to the post. Last year, the biotech had launched a phase 2a trial for an immunomodulating protein drug designed to target CD47. It now appears to have abandoned the program, with Cheruvu writing that "in biotech, even with flawless execution, biology doesn't always go according to plan." LinkedIn Jan. 30 - IO Biotech: The cancer vaccine specialist has brought in a financial advisor to aid in a strategic review while also implementing a "significant reduction" of the biotech's global workforce. At the same time, the biotech is letting go of Chief Medical Officer Qasim Ahmad, M.D., effective by the end of the day Feb. 15. Release Jan. 20 - Takeda: After a series of headcount reductions in recent years, Takeda has disclosed a new round of cuts expected to affect 243 field-based employees in 47 states and the District of Columbia tied to the looming patent cliff for antidepressant Trintellix (vortioxetine). The Japanese pharma is shifting resources to prepare for multiple potential medicine launches in the U.S., which could lead to 400 new commercial field roles. Story Jan. 16 - Vedanta Biosciences: The Massachusetts biotech is “significantly” reducing its headcount to channel resources toward its lead live bacteria cocktail program, a spokesperson confirmed with Fierce. The move follows a 20% workforce reduction last summer after a separate treatment for Enterobacteriaceae failed to reduce disease severity in a phase 2 study. Story Jan. 13 - Merck KGaA's EMD Serono: Merck KGaA's North American division has laid off an undisclosed amount of employees from its research team at a site in Durham, North Carolina. The move follows last year’s acquisition of SpringWorks Therapeutics and is part of a decision to streamline research operations, a spokesperson confirmed with Fierce. Jan. 13 - Sonoma Biotherapeutics: The regulatory T cell-focused biotech confirmed to Fierce that the company is reducing its workforce. While Sonoma wouldn't confirm how many employees will be affected, the biotech said roles across the organization and at "all levels and functions" would be impacted, including those based in South San Francisco, Seattle and remotely. The decision was made to "right-size the organization and align resources with SonomaBio’s highest priorities," such as a phase 1 study of its lead rheumatoid arthritis asset. Jan. 12 - Lyra Therapeutics: The Massachusetts-based biotech has “decided to suspend further development” of its chronic rhinosinusitis treatment. All 28 of Lyra’s remaining employees will be impacted by a “workforce reduction,” which is one of a number of “cost-saving actions to preserve capital.” Story Jan. 8 - InflaRx: The German inflammatory and immunology-focused biotech will reduce its headcount by about 30% and chart "substantial spending reductions" as it looks to channel resources toward its new lead asset, izicopan. It's unclear exactly how many employees will be affected; online sources put the company's total headcount at 74 about a year ago. Story Jan. 8 - Rampart Bioscience: After raising $125 million near the end of 2023, the genetic medicine biotech has appeared to wind down, Endpoints News reported after speaking with two former staffers. The U.S. biotech's website is no longer available. As of publication, Rampart's CEO Louis Breton has not responded to Fierce Biotech's request for comment. Source Jan. 8 - Tessera Therapeutics: The Flagship-founded company is planning to lay off 90 employees across a number of states starting March 8. The Massachusetts-based biotech isn’t expecting to close any of its facilities in connection with the layoffs. Story Jan. 2 - Nido Biosciences: After its lead neurological disease candidate disappointed in a midstage study, the neurobiotech is closing its doors. “Just a handful of employees” will be impacted, a Nido spokesperson told Fierce. 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