October Biopharma Layoffs Rise Year Over Year as Six Firms Cut Over Half Their Staff

Biopharma employers cut 43% more jobs in October 2026 than in the same month a year earlier, and three more companies made or planned workforce reductions than in October 2025 — the first year-over-year increase in company count recorded in 2026, according to BioSpace tallies.

The monthly rise does not signal a return to last year's downsizing pace. Through October, 99 biopharmaceutical companies have cut or announced plans to cut 19,538 employees. In all of 2025, 200 companies cut 43,242 people. To match that total, at least 101 additional companies would need to report layoffs in November and December, and newly reported reductions would have to affect more than 23,700 employees — an implausible sequence given the trend line.

How the monthly numbers break down

October was the third month in 2026 with a year-over-year increase in affected employees, after February (+283%, with 3,773 people affected) and May (+47%, with 6,956 people). March saw 2,417 employees affected. March was the only other month when more companies made or planned cuts than in the prior year.

The BioSpace dataset covers biotech and pharma companies only. It excludes contract development and manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, tools and services businesses, and medical device firms. Headcounts are confirmed or estimated from company officials, press releases, WARN Act notices (the U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification statute requiring advance notice of mass layoffs), SEC filings and media reports. The method has limits: not all companies disclose downsizing, some share only percentages, and some report totals retrospectively.

Which companies cut deepest?

Of the 15 biotechs and pharmas with made or planned layoffs in October, six are cutting at least half their workforces.

• Aviceda Therapeutics is winding down entirely. The Cambridge, Massachusetts company, which had 51 to 200 employees per its LinkedIn profile, cited "clinical trial results" in a LinkedIn post, Endpoints News reported. Its asset AVD-104 missed the primary endpoint in a Phase 2b trial last year, though the company had said in December 2025 it planned Phase 3 confirmatory studies.
• Artiva Biotherapeutics is laying off 94% of its workforce — 131 employees effective Dec. 31, per a WARN notice — and exploring a merger, sale, licensing or dissolution. The San Diego company is ending development of lead candidate AlloNK after two patient deaths and questions about the durability of clinical response. The cell therapy was in testing for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
• Caribou Biosciences is letting go of 87 people effective Dec. 7. With 97 employees as of Feb. 27, that could amount to 90% of staff. The Berkeley, California company attributed the cuts and its decision to discontinue its clinical-stage pipeline to a financing freeze in the CAR T space (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy). Its two active assets are vispa-cel, a CD19-targeting therapy for B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and CB-011, an anti-BCMA candidate for multiple myeloma. Strategic alternatives under review include a merger or acquisition.
• LENZ Therapeutics is cutting about 75% of its workforce, leaving roughly 40 full-time employees, per an SEC filing. President and CEO Eef Schimmelpennink departs Dec. 1. The Solana Beach, California company, whose aceclidine-based eye drop Vizz treats presbyopia, framed the move as a reorganization prioritizing consumer marketing and reduced operating expenses, disclosed alongside third-quarter earnings that missed expectations.
• Enlivex is cutting about 60% of its staff — around 20 of its 34 full-time employees as of Dec. 31, 2025. The Nes Ziona, Israel company is redirecting resources toward midstage development of Allocetra, an off-the-shelf cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis. CEO Oren Hershkovitz takes a 40% pay cut; the management team takes 20%.
• EyePoint is cutting 53% of its workforce: 105 employees in Massachusetts at its Watertown headquarters and Northbridge manufacturing facility, effective between Dec. 31, 2026 and Jan. 31, 2027. The move follows a disappointing readout for duravyu, an investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in wet age-related macular degeneration. The company is ending that asset's pivotal wet AMD trials early and shifting resources to late-stage duravyu work in diabetic macular edema.

GSK's cuts affect the most people

The single largest reduction in headcount terms comes from GSK. The U.K. pharma is eliminating more than 1,200 roles — as many as 1,217 — in Belgium, hitting its Rixensart, Wavre and Gembloux sites, Belgian publication L'Echo reported. The cuts form part of a three-year, $2.5 billion global restructuring intended to reallocate capital toward GSK's late-stage pipeline and R&D efforts, a company spokesperson told BioSpace.

For R&D managers, the pattern is consistent: pipeline failures, a financing freeze in cell therapy, and missed earnings are driving deep cuts at small biotechs, while large pharma restructures toward late-stage assets. Unless the final two months of 2026 produce more than 23,700 additional job losses across more than 100 newly reporting companies, the year will close well below 2025's total.

By Rebecca Stone