All entries for: Layoffs

May 6, 2026

BioNTech

Layoffs

Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate

1,000-5,000 employees

BioNTech has outlined plans to close multiple manufacturing facilities by the end of next year, affecting about 1,860 jobs.

The German biotech intends to shutter three facilities in its home country. BioNTech’s Idar-Oberstein, Marburg and Tübingen sites are scheduled for closure by the end of next year. As previously disclosed, the biotech is also exiting a manufacturing facility in Singapore. BioNTech expects to conclude operations at the Singapore facility by the first quarter of next year.

Efforts to consolidate the manufacturing network are focused on sites where capacity will become idle or underused within 24 months, BioNTech CFO Ramón Zapata said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call on May 5. BioNTech is exploring divestment options, including partial and total sales of the plants.

Disease Area: Oncology

Drug Type: Biologic

Source

April 30, 2026

Autolus Therapeutics

Layoffs

London

501-1,000 employees

In a move aimed at improving operational efficiency and cutting costs, London-based Autolus Therapeutics is letting go of about 13% of employees, the company announced April 29. The biotech, which develops autologous CAR T therapies, did not identify which locations the workforce reduction will affect but noted that it will impact all areas of the business. Autolus has a U.S. presence through its Gaithersburg, Maryland, office.

While the company said it’s cutting 13% of the workforce, it also noted that the reorganization includes “employee-related actions taken beginning in the second half of 2025.” When asked to clarify that statement, a spokesperson told BioSpace in an email that some employees were let go in the second half of last year, but “the number didn’t rise to the level of ‘material’ thus there was no announcement.” Those cuts, they added, count as part of the 13%.

The spokesperson did not identify how many people were laid off in the second half of last year. Autolus had 752 employees as of Dec. 31, according to its 2025 annual report.

Autolus plans to mostly complete the latest cuts by the third quarter and to save about $15 million on an annualized basis beginning in 2027, according to the announcement. The biotech expects its current and projected cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities will fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2027. Autolus had cash and cash equivalents of $104.1 million and marketable securities of $196.6 million as of Dec. 31, according to its annual report.

Disease Area: Oncology

Drug Type: Biologic

Source

April 28, 2026

Novartis

Layoffs

Basel, Baselstadt

10,000+ employees

For the second month in a row, Novartis is chipping away at its East Hanover, New Jersey, workforce. The Swiss pharma is laying off 60 employees in the city effective July 24 to Nov. 20, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice. Novartis is also letting go of 114 people in East Hanover from June 26 to Nov. 27, according to a March WARN alert.

Novartis also trimmed its workforce in 2025, putting 1,069 employees—including 485 in East Hanover—on the chopping block over a multiyear period. The largest round of layoffs involved 550 employees in Switzerland who will be out of work by the end of 2027.

Disease Area: Cardiovascular, Dermatology, Immune Diseases, Multiple, Oncology

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

April 20, 2026

Bristol Myers Squibb

Layoffs

Lawrence Township, NJ

10,000+ employees

Bristol Myers Squibb is letting go of more employees at its Lawrenceville, New Jersey, location, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice for the state. This time, the pharma will part ways with 206 employees, with the terminations set to take effect from July 16 through Dec. 31.

This is the second time that layoffs have come to BMS’ Lawrenceville operations—in February, the pharma let go of 247 staff in the area. The company’s corporate headquarters is located in Lawrenceville, as is an R&D facility. It is unclear if both offices are affected by the ongoing cuts.

Lawrenceville also bore the brunt of BMS’ layoffs last year, with workforce reductions affecting 1,266 people total. WARN notices for the area in 2025 disclosed that 290 employees were booted in February, 516 in May, 68 in July, 282 in September and 110 in November. Effective dates for those cuts began last year, with some dates continuing into 2026.

Disease Area: Other

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

April 15, 2026

Astellas Pharma/Universal Cells

Layoffs

Chuo-Ku, Tokyo

10,000+ employees

Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma will close the Seattle office of Universal Cells, its wholly owned subsidiary that creates engineered, allogeneic stem cells, a move that will affect 50 employees. A handful of affected staffers’ positions will be moved to the pharma’s other research locations in South San Francisco, California, and Westborough, Massachusetts, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice.

While the 50 employees are slated for layoffs, those who take internal transfer opportunities or roles with another Astellas corporate affiliate prior to their separation date won’t be let go as part of the cuts, according to the notice. The workforce reduction will be effective in multiple waves starting July 1, 2026, and ending April 1, 2028.

A company spokesperson told BioSpace in an emailed statement that the pharma is consolidating cell and gene therapy and oncology research activities in Seattle into its South San Francisco and Westborough sites.

Disease Area: Other

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

April 6, 2026

BioNTech

Layoffs

Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate

1,000-5,000 employees

BioNTech is closing a Singapore production plant less than four years after buying the site from Novartis to supply mRNA vaccines and therapies in the Asia-Pacific region. Last week, the Germany-based company told The Straits Times that the planned Singapore site will close by February 2027. BioNTech employs 85 people at the plant.

The company, which framed the shuttering as part of efforts to align capacity with its pipeline and long-term strategic direction, also had layoffs last year. BioNTech let go of 63 employees in August in connection with closing its cell therapy facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Around the same time, news broke that it would lay off 90 employees across its U.S. footprint, including 32 people at its Gaithersburg office and lab space, effective in September 2025, and 58 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Disease Area: Oncology

Drug Type: Biologic

Source

April 3, 2026

Biovectra

Layoffs

Charlottetown , PE

501-1,000 employees

Contract development and manufacturing organization Biovectra, a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilent Technologies, is cutting staff at its Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, Canada, locations, CBC/Radio-Canada reported March 27.

Agilent told the media outlet the company is making targeted workforce adjustments that will affect less than 45 employees. The adjustments “reflect current market conditions while also enabling a more streamlined structure with clearer accountability and faster decision-making,” according to the statement.

Agilent in 2024 acquired Biovectra, which is based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, for $925 million. The deal boosted Agilent’s capabilities in producing biologics and oligonucleotide therapies.

Disease Area: Other

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

April 1, 2026

Novo Nordisk

Layoffs

Bagsværd

10,000+ employees

Novo Nordisk will part ways with around 400 employees at its manufacturing site in Bloomington, Indiana, as part of a broader restructuring initiative, Fierce Pharma revealed in a March 31 report, confirming the news with a company spokesperson.

The layoffs will take effect “at the beginning of May,” the spokesperson added, noting that after the cuts, the production plant will be down to approximately 1,400 employees.

The Bloomington facility came to Novo as part of a larger deal by the pharma’s parent company, Novo Holdings, to acquire the CDMO giant Catalent in early 2024 for $16.5 billion. The site, however, has since become a source of headache for Novo, with the FDA flagging persistent contaminations and infestations. These violations have resulted in the rejection of several drugs, including from Incyte, Scholar Rock and Regeneron.

Novo announced a sweeping reorganization effort in September 2025, involving 9,000 layoffs across its global operations. Headcount reduction cycles that followed in the U.S. include one affecting 263 people in New Jersey late last year and another impacting 47 employees in North Carolina in October 2025.

Disease Area: Cardiovascular, Endocrinology, Metabolic Diseases, Multiple

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

March 31, 2026

Takeda

Layoffs

Tokyo

10,000+ employees

Takeda’s recently announced reorganization may affect approximately 634 U.S. employees, including 247 in Cambridge, Massachusetts effective July 1, 2026, through Dec. 31, 2027, and 387 in other states, though the total could change as staff pursue redeployment opportunities.

Disease Area: Multiple

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source

March 31, 2026

Novartis/NJ

Layoffs

East Hanover, NJ

10,000+ employees

Novartis is laying off 114 employees at its East Hanover, New Jersey site, with terminations running from June 26 through Nov. 27, continuing a pattern of workforce reductions at the location over the past year.

Disease Area: Oncology, Rare Diseases

Drug Type: Biologic, Small Molecule

Source