Biopharma layoff tracker 2024: Strand, Cara, Ikena and more cut staff
Biopharma layoff tracker 2024: Strand, Cara, Ikena and more cut staff
Published: Jan 26, 2024
By BioSpace Editorial Staff
2023 was a tough year for the biopharma industry, with several companies downsizing and restructuring their workforces to try to stay afloat. There are signs of recovery, however, with PwC predicting that mergers and acquisitions across the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry will reach a “healthy” level in 2024. Will the job market follow suit?
BioSpace will continue to be your source of news on job cuts and restructuring initiatives throughout 2024. Follow along as we keep you up to date on which companies are tightening their belts and cutting staff.
January
Jan. 26:
Boston–based programmable RNA startup Strand Therapeutics has laid off around 18% of its staff, Endpoints News reported Friday. The layoffs affect 19 of Strand’s 108 employees who worked on its earliest stage programs, the company told Endpoints.
“We’re moving from platform to pipeline,” Strand CEO Jake Becraft told the publication. “Some of the tools we had been building over the last year or two, even though successful in the research, are not going to be needed in those drug products.”
This news follows Strand’s announcement on Monday that the FDA has cleared a Phase I trial for STX-001, an mRNA-based cancer therapy that triggers production of the inflammatory protein IL-12 for an extended period of time directly into the tumor microenvironment.
Jan. 22:
Stamford, CT-based Cara Therapeutics will lay off about half of its employees, the company announced on Monday, including CSO Frédérique Menzaghi. The move comes hand in hand with the shuttering of its Phase III chronic kidney disease program and is expected to extend Cara’s cash runway into 2026. The biotech—which had 106 employees as of March 2023, Endpoints News reported—will now shift its focus to investigating difelikefalin in patients with the neuropathic disorder notalgia paresthetica (NP) after oral difelikefalin failed to show meaningful clinical benefit in patients with atopic dermatitis.
Jan. 18:
Ikena Oncology is laying off approximately 35% of its workforce as part of “an organizational streamlining that allows for the reallocation of resources from exploratory research and discovery towards the ongoing targeted oncology clinical programs,” the company announced Thursday. According to an SEC filing, about 20 employees will be let go from the Boston–based company, with 37 remaining. The filing also notes that on January 17, Bristol Myers Squibb notified Ikena that it would not continue a collaboration the two companies had around two drug candidates. In its announcement, Ikena said it will now focus exclusively on its two lead, clinical-stage oncology candidates, and that its cash runway extends into the second half of 2026.
Jan. 18:
PMV Pharmaceuticals is laying off approximately 30% of its staff in order to extend its cash runway to the end of 2026, the company announced Thursday. According to its LinkedIn page, the New Jersey–based company has between 51-200 employees. PMV said its priority is development of its candidate PC14586, a small molecule p53 reactivator now in clinical trials to treat solid tumors with a specific mutation.
Jan. 17:
Bayer unveiled a new operating model on Wednesday that will involve an unspecified number of layoffs. Barbara Gansewendt, chairwoman of the company’s Group Executives’ Committee, said in a statement that the move “will come at the expense of many managerial employees.” As of the end of last year, Bayer had 101,000 employees worldwide.
Jan. 17:
Lonza will cut 218 jobs at its Hayward, California site, according to a WARN report. The company reported that it is closing its manufacturing facility there. The layoffs will take effect Feb. 2, with the plant closing in the first quarter of 2025, a company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma.
Jan. 16:
Dewpoint Therapeutics is cutting approximately 20 positions, or 15% of its staff, as a couple of pharma collaborations fell through, CEO Ameet Nathwani told STAT News. The move is intended to free up cash to onboard new hires who will focus on growing the company’s AI platforms and bringing its first drugs into clinical trials, according to STAT.
Jan. 16:
Allakos, Inc. is ending work on its candidate lirentelimab after disappointing Phase II results in atopic dermatitis and chronic spontaneous urticaria and laying off about 50% of its workforce, the company announced Tuesday. The San Carlos, California–based company has 123 employees, according to GlobalData. Allakos said the restructuring will extend its cash runway into 2026 and that it will now focus on its monoclonal antibody AK006, which was engineered to inhibit mast cells and is now in Phase I testing in healthy volunteers.
Jan. 9:
C4 Therapeutics will lay off about 30% of its staff, or 45 people, in a bid to extend its cash runway into 2027, the company announced Tuesday. The company said it will prioritize development of its clinical-stage candidates CFT7455, CFT1946 and CFT8919, all of which are aimed at treating cancers. “Our strengthened balance sheet, coupled with cost savings from our restructuring, provide sufficient runway to execute through and beyond critical milestones across the portfolio,” said Andrew Hirsch, C4 president and CEO, in the company’s announcement.
Jan. 8:
German immuno-oncology company Affimed is cutting its headcount by up to half, it announced Monday. The company said the restructuring will direct all of its resources into its clinical-stage programs and extend its cash runway into 2025. Affimed announced last week that it is selling its subsidiary AbCheck. As of the end of March 2023, Affimed had 219 full-time employees, the company stated in an annual report.
Affimed CEO Adi Hoess, who has held the position for 13 years, will step down effective Jan. 15, according to the announcement, and Chief Medical Officer Andreas Harstrick will serve as interim CEO.
Jan. 5:
Senti Biosciences will lay off about 37% of its workforce, the South San Francisco–based company announced on Friday. Senti, which recently received Investigational New Drug approval from the FDA for its cell-based treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, said in the announcement that it will focus its resources on that candidate and on developing a treatment for a form of hepatocellular carcinoma. It expects that its cash runway will now be extended into the first quarter of next year.
According to its LinkedIn page, Senti has between 51–200 employees.
Jan. 5:
Allogene Therapeutics will cut nearly a quarter of its workforce as it shifts focus to developing its blood cancer therapy, Reuters reported Friday. The South San Francisco–based company recently announced it no longer focus on two studies testing another blood cancer therapy Cema-Cel, according to Reuters. Allogene had 361 employees as of February 2023.
Jan. 4:
Intellia Therapeutics is laying off approximately 15% of its workforce and pausing select exploratory research-stage programs, the gene editing company announced Thursday. The cuts will take place across all departments, a company representative told Endpoints News, and “won’t impact its lead programs and candidates.”
Intellia made the announcement in a press release highlighting the company’s three-year strategic priorities and 2024 key milestones, which include dosing the first patient in the MAGNITUDE trial of NTLA-2001 in ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy in Q1 of this year and preparing for the Phase III study of NTLA-2001 in ATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy.
As of Feb. 17, 2023, Intellia had 598 full-time employees, 471 of whom were primarily working in R&D, according to an SEC filing.
Jan. 4:
Thermo Fisher Scientific is closing its site in Petaluma, Calif., and will part with 74 of the facility’s employees, according to a WARN notice, Endpoints News reported. Thermo Fisher’s 10-year lease at the 89,649-square-foot facility—which makes pipette tips, microcentrifuge tubes and racks—expires in July, according to the North Bay Business Journal.
“Decisions that impact colleagues and their families are never taken lightly,” a company spokesperson told San Francisco Business Times in an email. “All impacted colleagues will receive job transition support to aid them in finding new opportunities.”
Jan. 4:
Aera Therapeutics, which launched in February 2023 with $193 million in combined Series A and Series B funds to “enable and advance the next generation of transformative genetic medicines,” has laid off 25% of its staff, STAT News reported.
In a statement, spokesman Dan Budwick blamed a difficult biotech funding environment for the cuts. “Although Aera remains in a strong cash position today, given the current biotech funding environment, we have chosen to take steps to focus our strategy and investments on the development of our novel delivery platforms, thereby further extending our cash runway,” he said, according to STAT.
Founded by world-renowned scientist Feng Zhang, Aera is attempting to deliver CRISPR enzymes and other gene-editing or gene-modulation tools to specific cells and organs in the body.
Jan. 1:
On Dec. 22, 2023, AlloVir announced it would discontinue its three Phase III studies of posoleucel, an investigational T cell therapy, after DSMB futility analyses concluded the trials were unlikely to meet their primary endpoints. The Waltham, Mass.–based company has now revealed it will part ways with approximately 95% of its staff “in order to reduce costs and preserve capital,” according to a WARN report dated Jan. 1. The layoffs will primarily take place during the first quarter of this year. The company had 114 employees as of Sept. 30, 2023, according to an SEC filing.
