Reasons behind the recent mass layoffs in biotech

River D'Almeida, Ph.D
4 min readAug 31, 2023

The industry faces uncertain times ahead due to regulatory changes and challenges

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Questions Industry Must Address:

  • Industry needs to answer questions about a drug’s superiority, pricing, and value.
  • Companies should rethink their approach to product development and pricing.
  • Economic and clinical value must be demonstrated to various stakeholders.

Over 115 biotechnology companies have announced job cuts this year, which is likely to surpass the number from last year. This trend of layoffs is not new, but it’s concerning because it suggests tougher times ahead for the pharmaceutical industry, which is already going through significant changes. This situation should serve as a strong signal to pharmaceutical executives that they need to change the way they do business, and they need to do it urgently.

In the past 20 years, the biopharmaceutical field has seen many job losses, and it seems like these job cuts will happen even faster now. One example is Biogen, a company planning to let go of about 1,000 employees, which is about 11% of their workforce, over the next few years. This is part of their “Fit for Growth” program. The CEO of Biogen, Christopher A. Viehbacher, said that they’re making these changes to focus more on areas that…

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River D'Almeida, Ph.D

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