2 Major Pharmaceutical Companies Laying Off Hundreds More In NJ

Two of New Jersey's largest pharmaceutical companies have announced more layoffs for the start of 2026.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck and Co. submitted notices to the New Jersey Department of Labor that they will be cutting more than 300 jobs between January and mid-May.

Those layoff notices, under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, are in addition to more than 1,200 announced by the two companies in 2025. WARN is a federal law designed to protect workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of a business closing or mass layoff.

Bristol Myers Squibb has cut 1,156 positions in 2025, including more than more than 200 in March and more than 500 in May.

The newest notice from the company posted by the labor department is for 110 job cuts in Lawrence, to be completed by mid-March.

"As shared on our quarterly earnings calls earlier this year, we remain focused on developing and delivering transformational medicines to patients around the world and continue to deliver on our long-term business strategy by aligning resources to best support our operating model and our portfolio evolution," a Bristol Myers Squibb spokesperson said in October, after the company announced a fifth round of layoffs, cutting 282 employees, in September.

"Unfortunately, there were impacts to some of our employees as a result of these changes noted above. We are grateful for the contributions of our colleagues and a top priority for us is supporting employees throughout the transition process," the spokesperson said.

The company declined to provide specifics on the job functions that were being cut but said they were primarily "organizational design and operational efficiency," and part of a planned $2 billion in cost-cutting.

Bristol Myers Squibb produces a spectrum of medications, including Eliquis, a blood thinner; Cobenfy, which treats schizophrenia, and Sotyktu, which treats psoriasis. It offers Eliquis to patients on a direct purchase basis and is planning to do the same with Sotyktu, Reuters reported, at an 80 percent discount.

Its Lawrence facility is a 1.67-million-square-foot site where scientists discover and develop medicines for cancer, immunology, cardiovascular and fibrotic diseases, according to the company's website.

Merck's notice, also posted in mid-November by the labor department, says the company will be cutting 204 jobs between February and May at its Rahway site, where more than 6,000 of its 75,000 employees worldwide work.

The company laid off 58 workers at its Rahway site under layoffs announced in August. Those cuts were completed Nov. 14.

The layoff announcement for early 2026 comes as the company also announced a dividend for shareholdersfor the first quarter of 2026.

Merck had announced a $3 billion restructuring in July. At the time the company had seen a dip in the returns on Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine, and was preparing for uncertainty regarding Keytruda, a cancer immunotherapy drug.

Merck has had shipments of Gardasil to China on hold because of the decrease in demand for the vaccine. Much of the growth for Gardasil on the global market has come from China and Japan.

The company also was gearing up for the loss of its legal exclusivity on Keytruda, the world's top-selling drug according to Reuters. The medication was scheduled to lose patent protection in 2028. This will open the door to biosimilar and generic competition. Keytruda was first approved in 2014, and in 2023, was responsible for 40 percent of Merck's pharmaceutical sales.

Merck is working to get a patent on a subcutaneous version that can be injected under the skin; which has been approved for use by the European Union, the company said in a Nov. 18 news release.

A patent on subcutaneous use would protect the formulation until at least 2040, according to Tahir Amin, co-founder of drug patent watchdog group Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

With reporting by Eddie Callahan, Patch Staff