The biopharma industry continued to navigate challenging employment conditions throughout 2024, with job postings declining and layoffs affecting thousands of professionals. However, recent funding increases and deal activity suggest the sector may be poised for recovery in 2025.
According to data from BioSpace, job postings in the fourth quarter of 2024 dropped 16% year-over-year, marking the fourth consecutive quarterly decline. This represents a steeper decrease than Q3's 11% drop, though both quarters performed better than the first half of the year, which saw declines of 25% and 24% in Q1 and Q2, respectively.
More concerning is the longer-term trend: average jobs live on BioSpace fell 46% from Q4 2022 to Q4 2024, indicating a significant contraction in the biopharma job market over two years.
Major Layoffs Across the Industry
At least 24,000 biopharma employees lost their jobs in 2024, with over 6,000 cuts occurring in the fourth quarter alone. The five largest workforce reductions came from industry giants:
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Johnson & Johnson led with approximately 2,300 layoffs, including up to 2,000 positions in China, primarily affecting a surgical products division. The company cited a "complex and rapidly changing environment" as the reason for these adjustments.
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Bristol Myers Squibb eliminated 2,200 jobs as part of an effort to generate $1.5 billion in cost savings. These cuts primarily impacted employees at the company's Lawrenceville, New Jersey headquarters.
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Bayer reduced its workforce by approximately 1,900 employees, including nearly half of its executive team, as part of a new operating model designed to reduce bureaucracy and achieve €2 billion in sustainable cost savings by 2026.
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Takeda Pharmaceuticals cut nearly 1,500 positions in the U.S. and Austria following a 57% drop in profit for the fiscal year ended March 2024.
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Pfizer laid off approximately 1,300 employees as part of a "cost-realignment" program launched in October 2023, aimed at generating $3.5 billion in savings to offset declining COVID-19 product sales.
The trend has continued into 2025, with 16 companies announcing layoffs affecting more than 1,000 people through mid-January. Notable cuts include Galapagos splitting into two entities and reducing its European workforce by 40%, and several smaller biotechs cutting the majority of their staff, including IGM Biosciences (73%), Barinthus Biotherapeutics (65%), and Passage Bio (55%).
Signs of Recovery
Despite the challenging employment landscape, several positive indicators suggest the industry may be turning a corner:
Venture investment reached $26 billion across 416 rounds in 2024, up from $23.3 billion over 462 rounds in 2023, according to J.P. Morgan's quarterly outlook. This increase broke a two-year trend of declining venture capital spending in biopharma.
The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2025 saw significant deal activity, with Eli Lilly, GSK, and Gilead announcing deals potentially worth over $1 billion combined. Johnson & Johnson also committed $14.6 billion to acquire Intra-Cellular.
These developments have generated optimism among industry leaders. Vir Biotechnologies CEO Marianne de Backer expressed hope that this could mark "the start of a rejuvenation of our industry where there's more M&A, more IPOs happening."
Industry Perspective
Eric Celidonio, founder and managing partner of Sci.bio Recruiting, noted that his firm has been busier since September 2024 than it had been for some time. He views the layoffs not as a sign of industry weakness but as "real-time natural selection."
"When there's less capital to go around, inevitably, the consequences are that some companies will go extinct, and they should," Celidonio said. "They're just less efficient, they're less capable, they've made mistakes, whatever the case is."
For large pharmaceutical companies, many of the layoffs followed mergers and acquisitions. "They've been buying companies in the therapeutic areas or the technologies they want to grow into rather than try and build them on their own," Celidonio explained.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Looking forward, Celidonio anticipates slow but steady industry growth in 2025, with job growth expected in the coming years. The impact of the incoming Trump administration remains uncertain, with potential mixed effects on the biopharma sector.
While Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has expressed skepticism toward vaccines, Marty Makary, the nominee for FDA commissioner, is expected to streamline bureaucracy. This could potentially accelerate the clinical trial process and approval of experimental therapies for new indications.
"I don't think it's going to be a net negative," Celidonio said of the new administration. "I don't think Trump wants to make an enemy of pharma."
As the industry continues to adapt to post-pandemic realities, the recent uptick in funding and deal activity provides cautious optimism that 2025 may bring improved conditions for biopharma employment after a challenging 2024.
