As part of a restructuring plan intended to cut $1.5 billion in costs, Bristol Myers Squibb plans to cut about 6% of its workforce, according to the firm.
The layoffs will affect approximately 2,200 Bristol Myers Squibb employees in 2024, according to a presentation given as part of the company's first quarter 2024 results report.
In implementing the plan, intended to realize savings by the end of 2025, the company is also consolidating its sites, reducing "management layers" and third-party spending, and trimming its experimental drug pipeline.
The savings will be invested in opportunities that Bristol Myers Squibb sees as having the greatest potential for growth.
"Our focus remains on strengthening the company's long-term growth profile," Christopher Boerner, PhD, Bristol Myers Squibb's CEO and board chair, said in a statement. "As a part of our continued evolution, we're executing a strategic productivity initiative that will allow us to be more agile, drive efficiency across the company, and prioritize investing in opportunities where we see the greatest potential to get the most promising medicines to patients as quickly as possible."
With competition from generics for some of its therapies and patents on several others due to expire, the firm has been expanding its business through acquisitions with strong market opportunities, including Karuna, which gives it the promising schizophrenia therapeutic KarXT, and RayzeBio, a developer of radiopharmaceutical cancer therapeutics.
