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Following a strategic review initiated in 2025 and shortly after a fire at a manufacturing facility in India, Viatris has announced a restructuring that involves laying off up to 10% of its global workforce. The company expects to primarily complete the cuts within the next three years.
Headquartered in the U.S. with global centers in Pittsburgh, Shanghai and Hyderabad, India, Viatris operates in more than 165 countries and territories and has more than 30,000 employees, according to a November SEC filing. That means the layoffs could impact up to 3,000 people across multiple departments that the company identified in its announcement, including its research and development, manufacturing and commercial teams.
Viatris is projecting the cuts’ potential savings will land between $600 million and $700 million. Most of those savings should improve operating cash flow, according to the company.
In other February news, the mid-February fire affected a service area at Viatris’ oral solid dose manufacturing facility in Nashik, India, according to the announcement. The company has temporarily suspended manufacturing at the site but expects to start back up in April.
Bristol Myers Squibb is continuing its workforce reductions, planning to cut 247 positions at its Lawrenceville, New Jersey location, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed for the state. The layoffs will take place between May 21 and the end of the year.
The company has two facilities in Lawrenceville: its corporate headquarters and a campus dedicated to R&D, product development, commercialization, and supply chain operations. It remains unclear whether both locations will be impacted.
This move follows several rounds of layoffs in the past year, many of which have affected the company’s New Jersey workforce. In February of last year, two separate rounds of cuts impacted 290 employees, with another 516 laid off in May. Additional layoffs occurred in June 2025, affecting 68 employees, followed by another 282 job cuts in September 2025.
Catalent is trimming its workforce again, with 93 positions being eliminated at its Harmans, Maryland facility, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice. These layoffs are scheduled to take effect on March 19.
The company’s most recent round of layoffs occurred in November 2025, when it cut 77 jobs from its gene therapy operations in Maryland. Earlier in the same year, in August, Catalent laid off 350 employees, also from its gene therapy unit. A company spokesperson attributed those reductions to a “shift in demand from a large customer,” although the specific customer was not identified.
These job cuts come after Catalent was acquired by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in late 2024. The acquisition, valued at $16.5 billion, was finalized in February 2024.
Concerto Biosciences is undergoing a restructuring as part of a strategic shift in its business focus, which will result in an undisclosed number of layoffs, according to a statement from the company. The exact timing of these layoffs and the number of affected employees were not disclosed.
Concerto has decided to shift its focus toward consumer products and applications, which has led to a reorganization and reduction in staff to better align resources with this new direction.
Concerto develops medicines based on microbial therapies. In October 2025, its atopic dermatitis treatment candidate ENS-002 showed promising results in Phase 2 trials, improving eczema symptoms and reducing levels of *Staphylococcus aureus* on the skin.
Faraday Pharmaceuticals, based in Seattle, is winding down its operations, according to a statement on the company’s website. The exact number of employees affected by this decision is unclear, but Faraday's LinkedIn page lists nine employees.
CEO Steve Hill revealed that the company’s lead asset, FDY-5301, failed a Phase 3 study for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) late last year. The drug, a proprietary formulation of sodium iodide, was designed to neutralize reactive oxygen species to reduce ischemia injuries, but the study failed to demonstrate a significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality or heart failure compared to a placebo.
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical is implementing a strategic restructuring to reduce its cash burn, which will include laying off approximately 10% of its workforce, or around 130 employees, as confirmed in a Feb. 12 news release. The company stated that the layoffs have already begun and will be substantially completed by the first half of this year.
The restructuring is part of Ultragenyx's effort to achieve profitability by 2027. The company expects to reduce its R&D and general expenses by at least 15% in 2027 compared to 2025 levels. However, the company anticipates absorbing $50 million in costs associated with the realignment.
This restructuring follows the disappointing Phase 3 results of Ultragenyx's investigational antibody setrusumab (UX143) for osteogenesis imperfecta, which caused the company’s value to drop by $1 billion. At the time, Ultragenyx indicated the potential for expense reductions, which led to the current restructuring.
Seres Therapeutics is laying off approximately 30% of its workforce as part of a strategic pipeline refocus, the company announced. The layoffs, combined with other cost-cutting measures, are expected to extend the company’s cash runway through the third quarter of the year.
Based on its most recent annual report, Seres had 103 employees as of Dec. 31, 2024, meaning the cuts could affect around 31 staff members.
As part of the restructuring, Seres is pausing its Phase 2 study of SER-155 in patients undergoing allo-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The company will now focus its resources on earlier-stage pipeline programs, although it will continue seeking funding for the SER-155 program. Seres aims to prioritize programs like SER-603, which targets inflammatory and immune-related diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Last year, Roche’s subsidiary, Genentech, made more workforce reductions than initially reported. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed on February 4 revealed that 141 employees were laid off across the company's operations.
Although Roche filed the WARN notice in June of the previous year, the layoffs took effect in August. A company spokesperson explained to Fierce Biotech on February 6 that the delay in posting the notice was due to a system error. The WARN notice listed the layoffs as occurring at Genentech’s DNA Way location in South San Francisco, but the company clarified that the cuts affected staff across multiple departments and sites.
Following these cuts in August, Genentech executed another round of layoffs, this time impacting 118 employees at its South San Francisco campus.
Charles River Laboratories is closing its cell therapy site in Hanover, Maryland, with the move affecting 20 employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing. The decision, confirmed by the company spokesperson on February 5, was made because the facility "was not a strategic fit" for Charles River.
Work previously conducted at the Hanover site will be transferred to other Charles River facilities, a process expected to be completed by the end of Q2 2026. The layoffs are scheduled to take effect on March 23, 2026.
This closure follows a similar reduction of staff in 2025, when Charles River laid off 13 employees at its Maryland facility in April. In February of the same year, the company also downsized its cell and gene therapy operations in Tennessee, with an undisclosed number of job cuts. Additionally, Charles River shut down a North Carolina facility in early 2025, resulting in 31 job losses.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is winding down operations at its Franklin, Massachusetts manufacturing plant, a closure that will leave 103 employees jobless, as confirmed by a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) on February 5. The company attributed the closure to shifting “current customer demands.”
A spokesperson explained that affected employees will be reassigned to other Thermo Fisher facilities within Massachusetts. The layoffs will occur between December 31, 2026, and December 31, 2027.
Thermo Fisher also reduced its workforce in early 2025, eliminating 300 positions across its Cambridge and Plainville, Massachusetts sites. Additionally, in November 2024, 160 employees were laid off from these same locations, as well as from Lexington.
GSK is planning to lay off up to 350 employees across its U.S. and U.K. operations as part of a realignment of its investment strategy, which was confirmed by a company spokesperson.
The layoffs are expected to impact fewer than 70 employees in the U.S. and fewer than 50 in the U.K., as reported by Fierce. A GSK spokesperson noted that these cuts are part of a broader investment in technology and key research and development (R&D) sites, aiming to enhance scientific capabilities and drive drug discovery. The company emphasized the importance of aligning resources with these new priorities and ensuring the right people are in the right roles.
While the total number of affected employees could still change, GSK's spokesperson confirmed that these adjustments are part of a broader shift in its operational focus.
This announcement follows a previous round of layoffs in July 2025, when 150 employees were let go from GSK’s Cambridge, Massachusetts site. The company also reduced its global R&D workforce that same month, though the exact number of cuts was not disclosed. In October 2025, GSK again trimmed its staff, removing eight employees from its San Francisco campus.
IO Biotech is implementing a significant workforce reduction as part of a broader initiative to contain costs and conserve cash, the company announced on January 30. In addition, IO revealed in a regulatory filing that it has informed its Chief Medical Officer, Qasim Ahmad, that his tenure will end on February 15.
While IO did not disclose the exact number of employees affected by the layoffs, it confirmed that no Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices were filed for its U.S. operations in New York or Maryland. As of June 30, 2025, IO employed 78 full-time staff members, a number it had reduced by 34 workers in September of the same year.
The company expects to incur one-time restructuring costs of between $2.4 million and $2.6 million, primarily due to severance and other employee benefits. However, IO did not specify when the layoffs would occur or how much the company anticipates saving from the reductions. It noted that these cuts are part of an effort to explore potential strategic alternatives.
Bitterroot Bio, based in California, is initiating a restructuring that will result in an undisclosed number of job losses, including that of its CEO, Pavan Cheruvu, according to a LinkedIn post from Cheruvu on January 29. The exact timing of the layoffs and the expected savings from the restructuring have not been revealed.
The company had previously been focused on developing BRB-002, an investigational immunomodulatory protein targeting CD47 to modulate macrophages and remove plaques. This asset was being investigated for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with a Phase IIa trial having been launched in Australia in June.
However, Bitterroot has now decided to halt this program. Cheruvu explained in his post that “even with flawless execution, biology doesn’t always go according to plan,” and announced the company would shift its focus back to discovery biology and translational research.
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