Layoff Trend Continues As 4 More Biotechs Cut Staff

Biotechs tend to whittle down their workforces as quarters come to a close, and the end of this first quarter is proving to be a particularly severe layoff period for the overpopulated sector. Four more biotech companies can now be counted as examples of the trend.

Silverback Therapeutics, a Seattle-based immuno-oncology biotech, has made public a restructuring plan that decreases its operating expenses and cuts its staff by 27%. The company will also discontinue its clinical oncology programs, SBT6050 and SBT6290, in the interest of reallocating resources into its chronic hepatitis B virus asset SBT8230 and overall discovery pipeline.

Though numbers and context were not included in the announcement, BridgeBio Pharma Founder and Chief Executive Officer Neil Kumar has also confirmed layoffs. The company hit a snag at the end of last year when its heart disease drug’s phase-3 trial showed that those taking the treatment were worse off than placebo patients.

Bone Therapeutics, looking to redirect its focus on clinical asset ALLOB as well as clinical trial TF2 execution, sliced its workforce by a quarter.

The last day of March saw Taysha Gene release 35% of its staff while indicating a priority to consolidate R&D efforts in order to extend its cash runway to next year’s fourth quarter. The biotech’s share price has fallen by nearly half since 2022 began.