After closing its $7.8 billion takeover of Arcellx last week, Gilead Sciences is now letting go of 108 employees at the biotech’s headquarters in Redwood City, California, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) alert for the state. The layoffs will take effect on June 30.
Arcellx had 220 employees as of March 1, according to a securities filing last month, indicating that Gilead’s cuts will nearly halve the biotech’s workforce.
Gilead and Arcellx are long-time partners. The companies joined hands in December 2022, with the pharma paying $225 million upfront alongside a $100 million equity investment in the biotech. The deal was focused on Arcellx’s late-stage CAR T therapy—the asset that would later be named anito-cel—for the treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Gilead at the time pledged up to $3.9 billion in milestones.