As part of a "strategic alignment" of its pipeline, BioNTech is laying off 90 workers in R&D and corporate roles across two sites in Maryland and Massachusetts, a spokesperson told Fierce.
The recent job cuts follow a 63-person workforce reduction at the drugmaker’s Gaithersburg facility in Maryland that were tied to a disappointing data cut from an early-stage CAR-T candidate.
The newest pink slips will impact 32 additional workers at the Gaithersburg site, according to a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification report filed July 18. The changes are effective by Sept. 16, according to the notice.
The rest of the layoffs—affecting about 58 roles—will occur at BioNTech’s Cambridge site in Massachusetts.
“We actively manage our pipeline and assess our sites according to key criteria: strategic alignment, operational efficiency and sustainable value creation,” the BioNTech spokesperson said. “To this end, we are significantly investing in certain essential areas while optimizing capacities in others.”
“We have completed a thorough review of the U.S. organization and believe that, with these changes, we are set up well for the future,” the German drugmaker’s spokesperson said.
“In Germany, negotiations with the group works council are ongoing,” the spokesperson added. “We expect that we should be able to provide more information later this year.”
The changes come as BioNTech redefines its pipeline priorities to focus on therapeutic approaches with pan-tumor potential, including its personalized mRNA cancer immunotherapies and a PD-L1/VEGF-A bispecific antibody candidate called BNT327. The latter has attracted the interest of Bristol Myers Squibb, which has received co-development and co-commercialization rights to BNT327 in exchange for $1.5 billion upfront and nearly $10 billion in potential payments.
BioNTech will also work to boost the therapeutic profiles of its investigational therapies via novel combinations, including with the company’s portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates.
“We plan to continue to significantly invest in the broad clinical evaluation of these assets across multiple cancer indications,” the spokesperson said of the prioritized cancer candidates.
During the second quarter, BioNTech’s R&D expenses declined from 584.6 million euros in 2024’s second quarter to 509.1 million euros for this year’s most recent quarter, according to an Aug. 4 earnings release. The company said the decrease was primarily driven by the “reprioritization of clinical trials towards focus programs.”
BioNTech just recently discontinued an investigational CLDN6-directed CAR-T, called BNT211, in testicular cancer with germ cell tumors. That decision prompted layoffs in its cell therapy manufacturing department, plus in technical operations roles, at Gaithersburg in June.
The discontinuation in testicular cancer won’t impact the company’s ongoing phase 1 BNT211-01 study in patients with CLDN6-positive relapsed or refractory solid tumors, a spokesperson told Fierce at the time.
The reorganization comes as BioNTech works to close its biggest M&A deal yet—a $1.2 billion acquisition of CureVac—and as questions swirl surrounding the Trump administration’s approach to the mRNA tech that defined the company’s rise.
Plus, BioNTech Chief Strategy Officer Ryan Richardson is hitting the exit at the end of September to "pursue new professional opportunities."
The leader joined BioNTech in 2018 and became chief strategy officer at the start of 2020. During his time there, the pharma raised more than $1 billion as its COVID-19 vaccine bolstered existing excitement about mRNA technology.