According to a corporate spokeswoman, there have been some recent organisational changes because of which Amgen has eliminated about 300 employees in the commercial sector in the US. The count accumulates to 1.2% of the company’s total employees, or 300 employees.
According to the company’s most recent annual regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as of 2021, there were around 24,200 employees working for the company across an international network across 50 countries.
Large Wall Street corporations and Big Tech companies have been at the forefront of a new wave of layoffs in corporate America. Amgen’s decision to reduce its employment may be demonstrating how the healthcare sector has started to feel the effects of rising interest rates. The spokesperson stated:
“We made these adjustments to better manage against industry headwinds so that we can continue to generate value for our patients, staff, and shareholders. These choices are never simple, and we are dedicated to providing transitional support for individuals affected”
Amgen’s wave of layoffs comes after Abzena laid off 66 employees in 2023 followed by several other staff cutbacks that took place last year.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice revealed that Abzena, a CDMO that specialises in the research and manufacturing of antibody-drug conjugates, released 66 employees in San Diego this year. The decision was made at a time when the business was in its transition phase as the new CEO of the company was brought on board.
The wave of restructuring and layoffs continued with Novartis removing 285 positions from its portfolio across three of its facilities in New Jersey. At that time, a Novartis spokeswoman said that the reductions will impact the company’s worldwide drug development, customer technology solutions, communication, finance, and other departments in addition to its former pharmaceutical and oncology businesses.
As per sources, it is believed that this action by Novartis is a part of a larger plan to reduce 8,000 employees globally, and it is expected to extend to the company’s executive staff as well. The workforces of Catalent, a leader in contract manufacturing, and Johnson & Johnson have both suffered recently.
There were a total of 119 layoffs last year, with the majority of them taking place in the second last month of the year. The news has so far tracked nine rounds of cutbacks in the first month of 2023, indicating that the pandemic of layoffs doesn’t seem to have stopped.
But there are some positive developments in the biopharma job market. Modernas RNA expert has disclosed that it will hire 2,000 additional employees by 2023. Moderna is aware of the current layoff climate, and according to the company’s chief technical operations and quality officer, Jerh Collins, the company is finding the gaps of where it is taking place and seeing if they can take any steps to cater to the problem.
