Biopharma layoffs hit a record low in Q3, with New Jersey worst affected

Biopharma layoffs fell to their lowest level on record in the third quarter of 2026. BioSpace's quarterly tally, published on 8 October, found 27 companies that made or projected workforce cuts in the quarter, affecting 2,568 employees.

The numbers

Against the same quarter of 2025, the number of companies cutting staff was down 56% and the number of people affected was down 90%. Both are the lowest quarterly figures since BioSpace started tracking layoffs in 2024.

This has been building for some time. The count of companies announcing cuts has dropped every quarter since early 2025 and has now stayed below 30 for two quarters running. The number of people affected has moved around more, but Q3 2026 was the lightest quarter of the last two years.

Big Pharma did most of the cutting

Eight large pharma companies accounted for 1,845 of the affected roles, and Pfizer added to its restructuring without giving job numbers. The largest single item was GSK, which is ending about 650 jobs by closing a vaccine plant in Germany and consolidating production in Canada, part of a three-year, $2.5B restructuring set out in July. Novartis is cutting 322 roles in East Hanover, New Jersey, plus about 130 in Switzerland, where small-volume biologics production at Kleinbasel is due to end by late 2027. Bristol Myers Squibb filed a WARN notice covering 265 jobs in Princeton.

New Jersey took the hardest hit

Where companies named locations, the cuts reached six states. Massachusetts had the most companies making cuts (nine), but New Jersey had the most people affected: 851, against 487 in Massachusetts and 246 in California. Novartis and BMS alone made up 587 of the New Jersey total, or 69%. In Massachusetts, Sanofi's Blueprint Medicines unit accounts for 229 roles in Cambridge. In California, Arsenal Biosciences plans to cut 99 people across its Hayward and South San Francisco sites.

What the tally leaves out

BioSpace builds its count from company confirmations, press releases, WARN Act notices, SEC filings and media reports. It excludes CDMOs, CROs, tools and services businesses and medical device makers. Some companies only disclose a percentage, or report totals after the event, and BioSpace flags those limits itself.

The bigger picture

The contrast with last year is sharp. BioSpace put the 2025 total at roughly 42,700 people affected, a 47% rise on 2024. A quieter quarter does not mean the pressure has gone, though. Clinical setbacks are still forcing smaller biotechs to shrink, as several companies showed in October.