Layoff Tracker: Rome Trims Already-Small Team Amid Strategic Review
2024 was a tough year for the biopharma industry, with several companies including Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson cutting hundreds or even thousands of employees.
BioSpace will continue to be your source of news on job cuts and restructuring initiatives throughout 2025. Follow along as we keep you up to date on which companies are tightening their belts and cutting staff.
To see which biopharmas laid off employees in the years prior to 2025, check out our 2023 and 2024 articles.
Rome Therapeutics
Sept. 24
Rome’s 14-person team is getting even smaller as the biotech is forced to assess its strategic options to stay afloat amid “challenging market conditions,” a company spokesperson told Fierce Biotech.
“Rome’s leadership and our board of directors are actively exploring strategic options to enable the continued advancement of our novel science and programs, all of which aim to address significant unmet patient needs,” the spokesperson said. The biotech has yet to specify how many people will be laid off, only revealing that the workforce reduction will be effective at the end of this quarter.
Alongside the cost-cutting efforts, Rome will also give up its physical office and switch to completely virtual operations, according to the spokesperson.
Launched in 2020 with $50 million in series A funds, Rome entered the industry with a mission to mine the “uncharted territory” of the genome for novel therapies for cancer, immune-mediated diseases and infectious diseases, according to a press announcement at the time. Three years later, the biotech’s series B brought in more than $70 million with the support of many high-profile backers, including Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Seres Therapeutics
Sept. 23
As part of cost-cutting measures to support its lead program, Seres Therapeutics is laying off about 25% of its workforce, which includes people let go effective in August, the company announced today. The Cambridge, Massachusetts–based biotech had 103 employees as of Dec. 31, according to its annual report, meaning the workforce reduction could affect around 26 staffers. Seres expects the cuts will help extend its cash runway into the second quarter of 2026.
The biotech also noted in the announcement that it has received additional “constructive feedback” from the FDA that will help finalize the Phase II study protocol for lead program SER-155. The investigational live biotherapeutic is intended to prevent bacterial bloodstream infections and other pathogen-associated negative clinical outcomes in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants.
Seres is looking to secure capital and other resources to support advancement of the Phase II study as well as further development of additional live biotherapeutic candidates, according to the announcement. The company hopes to have interim clinical results within 12 months of study initiation.
Arvinas
Sept. 19
After letting go of its Pfizer-partnered vepdegestrant, Arvinas is enacting a “cost optimization” program that will include a workforce reduction of 15%.
The Connecticut company had 430 full-time employees at the end of 2024, as per its annual report. In May, the biotech let go of 131 people, likewise in a restructuring initiative, leaving less than 300 staff working at the company. This means that this latest round of layoffs could affect some 45 people. This retrenchment effort will heavily focus on departments involved with the commercialization of vepdegestrant, according to its Sept. 18 announcement.
In the same press release, Arvinas and Pfizer said they had “jointly agreed” to farm out the commercialization rights to vepdegestrant, a PROTAC degrader, to a third-party company. It is not immediately clear why the companies are moving away from the asset, with the announcement noting only that they believe “a third-party commercial partner is the best path forward to unlock the full value of vepdegestrant and ensure vepdegestrant is available promptly if approved.”
Arvinas and Pfizer were proposing vepdegestrant for the treatment of ER-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer with ESR1 mutations. The FDA accepted the drug application last month with a target action date of June 5, 2026.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Sept. 19
Bristol Myers Squibb is letting go of 282 employees in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with effective dates in December 2025 and February and March of next year, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice.
It’s been a difficult year for BMS’ presence in New Jersey. In February, the company, via two different WARN disclosures, revealed that it would lay off a total 290 employees from its Lawrenceville campus. Then, in May, BMS added 516 more employees to the count. In July, it disclosed it would let go of 68 staffers.
BMS is in the midst of an aggressive cost-cutting campaign. Last year, the pharma aimed to save $1.5 billion through 2025. In February this year, BMS raised its savings goal by $2 billion, which it expects to fulfill through 2027.
