Layoff Tracker: Apellis, Barinthus, Repare Among Latest to Trim Workforces

2024 was a tough year for the biopharma industry, with several companies including Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson cutting hundreds or even thousands of employees.

BioSpace will continue to be your source of news on job cuts and restructuring initiatives throughout 2025. Follow along as we keep you up to date on which companies are tightening their belts and cutting staff.

To see which biopharmas laid off employees in the years prior to 2025, check out our 2023 and 2024 articles.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Jan. 14
Apellis Pharmaceuticals on Monday announced that it was letting go of 40 employees. The workforce reduction is part of the biotech’s effort to prioritize its commercial efforts in the U.S.—meaning that the layoffs will affect employees located overseas.

Alongside the layoffs, Apellis also announced that its chief operating officer Adam Townsend will step down from his role effective Feb. 21 to pursue a new opportunity. Townsend has been with Apellis since 2018 and has helped “establish a world-class commercial organization,” CEO Cedric Francois said in a statement.

Apellis disclosed these organizational changes during a preview of its fourth-quarter results at the 2025 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. The company reported $709 million in preliminary full-year U.S. net product revenues, of which $611 million came from its geographic atrophy therapy Syfovre while the remaining $98 million were contributed by Empaveli, which is indicated for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.

By early 2025, Apellis plans to file for the label expansion of Empvali into two rare kidney diseases, complement 3 glomerulopathy and primary immune complex-mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Barinthus Biotherapeutics
Jan. 14

To cut costs as it prioritizes immunology and inflammation indications, Barinthus Biotherapeutics plans to axe 65% of its employees across its U.K. and Germantown, Maryland, locations, the clinical-stage biopharma announced Jan. 10. The cuts, which include two C-Suite members, are expected to help the company extend its cash runway to the start of 2027.

Barinthus had 130 employees—95 of them in the U.K.—as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to a March SEC filing. However, it let go of 25% of its workforce in mid-2024, meaning the latest planned layoffs may affect about 64 people, leaving the company with fewer than 35 employees.

Alongside the expected staff cuts, Barinthus is also postponing further development of VTP-300 in chronic hepatitis B until it identifies a partner, according to the announcement. It therefore won’t invest in the drug candidate beyond completion of an ongoing Phase IIb HBV003 clinical trial.

The layoffs, which would mostly affect the U.K. workforce and should be completed during the first half of 2025, are subject to consultation with U.K. employee representatives, according to a Jan. 10 SEC filing. If the cuts move forward, they include parting ways with Chief Operating Officer Graham Griffiths and Chief Financial Officer Gemma Brown, effective June 30 and April 30, respectively.

Repare Therapeutics
Jan. 14

As it reprioritizes its pipeline, Repare Therapeutics will cut an unspecified number of staff, the clinical-stage precision oncology company announced Jan. 10. The Quebec-based biotech expects that headcount reductions will help extend its cash runway into mid-2027. It wasn’t clear when the layoffs will be complete.

Repare, which also has a location in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had 179 employees as of Feb. 16, 2024, according to an SEC filing. However, in August, it announced it was letting go of 25% of its workforce, which may have left it with fewer than 135 people prior to these latest cuts.

Repare is reprioritizing its pipeline to focus on continued advancement of its Phase I clinical programs: RP-1664, a PLK4 inhibitor, and RP-3467, a Polθ ATPase inhibitor. The company is evaluating RP-1664 as a monotherapy and RP-3467 alone and in combination with olaparib, a poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor. Repare is also exploring partnerships for continued development of assets across its portfolio, including lunresertib and camonsertib, used in combination in patients with endometrial cancer and platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Passage Bio
Jan. 14

To help extend its cash runway into the first quarter of 2027, Passage Bio will slash its workforce by about 55%, the clinical-stage genetic medicines company announced Jan. 10. In an SEC filing, the Philadelphia-based company noted it expects to incur associated severance and exit costs of about $2 million primarily during the second quarter, indicating the staff cuts will happen quickly.

Passage had 58 employees as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to a March SEC filing, meaning the cuts could affect about 32 people, leaving the company with 26 employees. The business has two locations, one in Philadelphia and another in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. It did not say whether the workforce reduction will affect both sites.

The company’s other business moves include transitioning to an outsourced analytical testing model following an assessment of its operating needs to support advancement of its PBFT02 program, according to the announcement.

For more details, read the article.

Y-mAbs Therapeutics
Jan. 13

As part of a realignment that includes establishing two business units, Y-mAbs Therapeutics expects to cut about 13% of its workforce, dependent on whether some employees accept newly created positions, the company announced Jan. 10. The New York–based commercial-stage biopharma had 100 employees, including 63 people in research and development roles, as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to a February SEC filing. That means the layoffs could affect about 13 staffers, leaving the company with 87 employees.

Y-mAbs, which has locations in Nutley, New Jersey, and in Denmark, intends to move some roles from Denmark to the U.S. to more efficiently coordinate advancing its radiopharmaceutical platform, according to the announcement. It will also make a “small adjustment” to the commercial team for Danyelza, its monoclonal antibody for high-risk neuroblastoma in the bone or bone marrow.

Regarding its realignment, the biopharma, which is developing and commercializing novel radioimmunotherapy and antibody-based therapeutic products to treat cancer, will split into radiopharmaceuticals and Danyelza business units. This will help optimize resources and advance Y-mAbs’ novel self-assembly disassembly pretargeted radioimmunotherapy (SADA PRIT) platform programs through clinical development while also driving Danyelza’s commercial growth, according to the announcement. The company designed the SADA PRIT platform in part to improve upon traditional radioimmunotherapy by delivering high therapeutic dose while minimizing off-target exposure.

Generation Bio
Jan. 13

To support clinical development of its T cell–directed medicines, Generation Bio is reorganizing, a move that includes C-suite changes, the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based biotech announced Jan. 6. The company will cut staff in Cambridge by 20% and expects to complete that workforce reduction by the second quarter of 2025, according to a Jan. 6 SEC filing.

Generation Bio had 174 employees as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to a February SEC filing. However, it let go about 40% of its staff during the second quarter of 2024, as reported in multiple SEC filings earlier this year, including one in November. Therefore, with the latest cuts, the company may be laying off another 21 people, leaving it with 83 employees.

In its Jan. 6 announcement, Generation Bio shared it’s moving toward the clinic by deploying its cell-targeted lipid nanoparticle (ctLNP) to develop siRNA therapeutics with the goal of silencing disease-driving targets in T cells. The biotech hopes that by precisely modulating T cell activity in vivo, it can address high-value, undruggable targets involved in the inflammation and tissue damage associated with T cell–driven autoimmune diseases. It plans to submit its first Investigational New Drug (IND) application in the second half of 2026.

As part of its staff cuts, Generation Bio is parting ways with Matthew Stanton as chief science officer and Matthew Norkunas as chief financial officer. Stanton will exit midway through the year and become a scientific advisory board member, according to the announcement. Norkunas’ last day was Jan. 10, according to the Jan. 6 SEC filing.

IGM Biosciences
Jan. 13

IGM Biosciences is cutting 73% of its workforce and stopping development of two autoimmune drug candidates, the biotech announced Jan. 9. Following the news, BMO Capital Markets downgraded the Mountain View, California–based company’s shares from outperform to market perform.

IGM had 198 employees as of Sept. 30, according to a November SEC filing. That means the layoffs could affect about 144 people, leaving the business with fewer than 55 staffers.

Regarding its pipeline, IGM is halting work on imvotamab and IGM-2644, bispecific antibody T cell engagers for autoimmune diseases. The biotech is also considering its next business move so it can maximize shareholder value, in part by evaluating “internal options as well as potential strategic alternatives,” according to the release.

For more details, read the article.

Intellia

Jan. 10

Intellia Therapeutics is reducing its workforce by around 27% as part of a reorganization program announced on Thursday. The company said it will focus its efforts and resources on high-value programs, specifically its investigational gene editors NTLA-2002 for hereditary angioedema and nexiguran ziclumeran (nex-z) for transthyretin amyloidosis. Intellia had 526 full-time employees as of mid-February 2024, according to an SEC filing.

As part of this strategic pivot, Intellia will discontinue the development of its investigational therapy NTLA-3001, which was originally being tested for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-associated lung disease. The biotech expects to implement the announced layoffs “over the course of 2025,” as per its news release.

As of the end of 2024, Intellia still had around $862 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments. Thursday’s realignment will cost the company $8 million in one-time expenses, but will help extend its runway into the first half of 2027.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Intellia expects to dose the first patients in the respective Phase III studies for NTLA-2002 and nex-z, with an eye toward becoming a “commercial-ready organization by the end of 2026,” according to its Thursday announcement.

Shoreline

Jan. 10

Shoreline Biosciences is laying off a yet-undisclosed number of employees in connection with a cell therapy partnership with Gilead subsidiary Kite, Endpoints News reported on Thursday.

CEO Kleanthis Xanthopoulos confirmed the workforce reduction in a phone interview with Endpoints, but declined to…