Big Pharma layoffs continue, as Bristol-Myers Squibb cuts 2,200 jobs, $1.5B in costs

At a time when drugmakers Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk are scrambling to meet demand for their popular weight-loss medications, other manufacturers are struggling. Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced that it plans to cut $1.5 billion in expenses by the end of 2025, including laying off more than 2,200 employees.

Patents are set to expire for the company’s two top-selling drugs – the blood thinner Eliquis, which it sells with Pfizer, and the cancer immunotherapy Opdivo. Eliquis also is one of the first 10 drugs the government has targeted for price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act. Its third highest-grossing product, the multiple myeloma treatment Revlimid, already faces limited generic competition.

To prepare for those coming losses, Bristol-Myers Squibb is focused on acquisitions, including deals over the past six months to purchase Karuna Therapeutics, RayzeBio and Mirati Therapeutics. These deals have brought in prospective treatments for schizophrenia, a type of neuroendocrine tumor and lung cancer.

“While the IRA has an impact in the middle of the decade, we feel very good about being able to more than compensate for that with a very young and attractive growth profile coming from our portfolio and the pipeline,” CEO Chris Boerner told financial analysts during an earnings call.

The restructuring is designed to prioritize products that the company sees as having the highest potential, and it plans to reinvest the targeted $1.5 billion in savings in these opportunities. Two-thirds of the savings is expected to come out of spending on research and development. The company has discontinued 12 programs, including a successor version of its immunotherapy Yervoy, and will continue to review its pipeline through the rest of the year, Chief Medical Officer Samit Hirawat said.

The announcement comes amid significant restructuring in the pharmaceutical industry:

• Sanofi has been laying off employees and cutting earlier-stage research after a full pipeline reprioritization. Much of the cost savings has centered on reducing investments in oncology, shifting resources to immunology and inflammation research.
• Pfizer’s multibillion-dollar restructuring in 2023 cost jobs across the globe, with the company most recently ending research at a site in Boulder, Colo., and closing an internal research and development subunit that worked closely with physician-scientists to develop new drugs.
• Last fall, Novartis laid off more than 100 employees at its U.S. headquarters in East Hanover, N.J.
• Biogen also laid off 1,000 employees last year.

Related: Bristol-Myers Squibb buys Mirati for $4.8B, as pharma fixates on cancer drugs

Bristol-Myers Squibb reported $11.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up 5% compared to the same period in 2023, driven by Yervoy, Reblozyl and Opdualag. However, there were signs of trouble, namely a 6% drop in global Opdivo sales.