Vertex has decided to lay off 78 employees at Crinetics Pharmaceuticals following its $10 billion acquisition of the endocrine disease drug developer.
The job cuts, tied to Crinetics’ global headquarters in San Diego, will take effect come January, according to a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed in California. As of Feb. 13, 2026, Crinetics had 594 full-time employees, according to the company’s annual securities filing.
Vertex officially completed its Crinetics acquisition on Sept. 1 and started the integration process being spearheaded by chief operating officer Charles Wagner.
“As part of the integration of these businesses, we identified roles across Crinetics that will not continue in the combined organization, including certain roles based at the Crinetics site in San Diego,” a Vertex spokesperson said in a statement to Fierce.
“We value the contributions of every team member impacted, and we are committed to supporting them through this transition, including offering severance, outplacement support and career counseling,” the spokesperson added.
Crinetics sells Palsonify, a treatment for acromegaly, a rare hormonal condition in which some bones and tissues grow bigger. Vertex has also touted the potential of Crinetics’ investigational congenital adrenal hyperplasia program, atumelnant. Together, the two drugs could add more than $5 billion in peak annual sales, according to Vertex’s estimate.
Following the closure of the deal, which was Vertex’s largest ever, the Boston biopharma reported roughly $60 million in Crinetics operating and integration-related expenses in September. The company also dialed up its full-year operating expense guidance to approximately $6 billion, with $250 million tied to Crinetics operations and integration-related costs.
Meanwhile, Vertex is also pouring resources into the potential launch of its IgA nephropathy candidate povitacept, as the anti-BAFF/APRIL drug’s target FDA decision date of Nov. 30 draws near.
Back in March, Vertex trimmed its workforce in Massachusetts by 20 staffers as part of what it called a “functional reorganization.”
Post-acquisition layoffs are commonplace in the biopharma world even among mid-sized companies.
Following its own largest buyout to date, BioMarin recently eliminated 58 roles at the headquarters of Amicus Therapeutics. Earlier this year, Gilead Sciences telegraphed a 191-person layoff round affecting former Arcellx jobs in California and Maryland.