Biopharma layoffs in the first half of 2026 affected just 2% fewer employees year over year, based on BioSpace tallies, but full-year workforce reductions are unlikely to match the 43,242 cuts recorded in 2025 unless second-half layoffs surge. To reach last year's total, the number of people impacted in the second half would need to increase by 100% over the first half’s sum, reaching 28,815.
Recent trends suggest such a jump is not guaranteed. In 2024, layoffs fell by 20% from the first to the second half of the year. The outlook for biopharma employment will depend on whether steep layoff rounds continue and if increased mergers and acquisitions activity leads to further job losses.
During each year's first six months from 2024 through 2026, major layoff rounds were concentrated in the second quarter. In Q2 of this year alone, cuts affected 6,360 employees—68% of all staff let go during H1. For example: Bayer laid off thousands as part of restructuring efforts in both early and mid-2024; Bristol Myers Squibb announced a reduction of around 2,200 positions by late that year; Teva Pharmaceuticals projected nearly 2,900 job losses through to 2027; Viatris planned up to 3,000 cuts within three years starting this year; BioNTech disclosed about 1,860 planned layoffs by end-2027; Takeda aimed for roughly 4,500 reductions during fiscal year 2026.
Second-half rounds also featured significant downsizing at companies like Bayer and Johnson & Johnson (in China) during late-2024 and Merck and Novo Nordisk in Q3 of last year. However, Bayer has not reported major new reductions so far this year. CEO Bill Anderson said during an earnings call that future workforce changes would be limited to “incremental attrition.”
Several first-half layoffs followed merger or acquisition activity—at least five companies trimmed their workforces shortly after deals closed this year. These moves are expected to affect around 1,130 people combined. Notably: BioNTech will let go of hundreds at CureVac sites following its $1.25 billion acquisition completed last December; Gilead Sciences announced it would cut most Arcellx staff after acquiring it for $7.8 billion.
The potential remains for more M&A-driven job losses later this year as dealmaking has accelerated: there were fifty-two biopharma transactions in H1—up from thirty-two a year earlier—with sixty percent occurring in Q2 alone, according to BioSpace data.
