Bristol Myers Squibb is closing a cell therapy R&D site in California as the company implements a $1.5 billion cost-cutting program that was announced this week, according to a company spokesperson.
The Redwood City, CA facility will be closed and employees who aren’t being let go will be relocated to another site in Brisbane, also in the Bay Area. The changes come amid layoffs of roughly 2,200 employees company-wide, representing about 6% of its global workforce, and a pipeline reorganization as new CEO Chris Boerner steers Bristol Myers through a “transition period” following several big acquisitions.
“Unfortunately, there were impacts to some of our employees as a result of these changes,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We remain committed to the San Francisco Bay Area as an important innovation hub.”
The San Francisco Business Times first reported the news Friday morning.
According to BMS’ website, the Redwood City site made up the company’s Cancer Immunology & Cell Therapy Thematic Research Center. Most of the research centered around the tumor microenvironment in order to “inform the science required to enable early drug development.”
The Brisbane site, meanwhile, has teams spanning the development spectrum — from drug discovery to late-stage clinical trials — and several therapeutic areas. BMS recently expanded the site by 27,000 square feet, hosting a ribbon-cutting last September.
Bristol Myers sells two of the six FDA-approved CAR-T treatments for aggressive blood cancers: Abecma and Breyanzi. Both therapies came to BMS as part of the 2019 Celgene buyout, with Breyanzi originating at the Celgene-acquired Juno Therapeutics.
It’s also developing a handful of CAR-T programs, one for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma targeting GPRC5D and another going after CD19 for systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE. There is also a dual-targeting BCMA and GPRC5D-directed CAR-T for late-line multiple myeloma.
Editor’s note: This article and headline have been updated to clarify that BMS’ Redwood City, CA facility is for cell therapy R&D.