Amid a recent surge of layoffs in the biopharma industry, two contract manufacturers have each cut more than 50 jobs, filings show.
According to a California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) report, a total of 57 workers were laid off at several of Fujifilm Irvine Scientific’s sites in Santa Ana, California.
The positions were made “redundant,” not as a reflection of employee performance but as a “necessary step to enable the company to more efficiently deploy its resources,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The affected workers were offered “comprehensive severance support.”
Across the country, Florida CDMO Formulated Solutions cut 66 staffers, according to a recent WARN notice.
Formulated Solutions did not immediately reply to Fierce Pharma’s request for comment.
Both companies have been touting their expansion efforts in recent years.
In 2021, Fujifilm Irvine Scientific wrapped up construction on a 250,000-square-foot facility in the Netherlands. The factory was made to produce materials such as dry powder media, liquid media and other raw materials.
As for Formulated Solutions, the company in March invested $44 million to expand a recently acquired manufacturing facility in Tennessee. Formulated Solutions purchased the site in late 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
Meanwhile, several companies in the biopharma industry have recently enacted their own rounds of job cuts.
Lyndra Therapeutics let go of roughly 23% of its staff after deciding to outsource commercial manufacturing and partner on the development and commercialization of “all future products,” according to a spokesperson.
A week earlier, autoinjector specialist AktiVax shut down operations altogether due to “unexpected circumstances,” affecting 70 jobs.
CSL Vifor also shed 85 staffers after a strategic review prompted changes to the company’s U.S. commercial group. Those layoffs were made a year after the Vifor Pharma joined the CSL fold through an $11.7 billion buyout.