While biotech layoffs are continuing to add up in 2023 and impacting 1,200+ workers in Maryland, BioBuzz has compiled a list of job & career resources below that can help those who need them.
After four years of a booming life sciences job market the Maryland biotech industry has been hit with more than 1,222 layoffs in the past 12 months, according to the State of Maryland’s Work Adjustment and Retraining Notifications registry. These layoffs equal 2.26% of the Maryland life science workforce. Most recently, Emergent BioSolutions announced the laying off over 200+ people and reducing their BayView CDMO to just a small crew. This comes on the heels of Novavax laying off 25% of their workforce, about 500 people, in March and Catalent letting go of 135 in January; to name a few of the larger layoff announcements that have impacted Maryland workers.
Maryland Biotech Layoffs over past 12 months:
- Jason Pharmaceuticals (d/b/a Medifast, Inc.) eliminated 134 employees in September, 2022
- Jubilant Cadista Pharmaceuticals Inc. laid off 80 employees in November 2022
- Emergent announced 132 layoffs across the company in January 2023
- Catalent laid off 135 in Gaithersburg & Rockville effective January 2023
- Neximmune laid off 22 in January 2023
- Pandemic Response Lab eliminated 21 employees in January 2023
- Novavax laid off approximately 500 employees (25% of workforce) in March 2023
- Adaptive Phage Therapeutics laid off 22 employees in May 2o23
- Nutramax Laboratories let go 43 staff effective in June 2o23
- Ellume USA laid off 37 workers in Frederick in July 2023
- Emergent: Aug 8th – 231 workers in Maryland in August 2023
Our hearts go out to all of those who have been impacted by these challenging times. While the current state of the market is concerning, the fundamentals of the Maryland biotech market remain optimistically strong and are poised to rebound more robust than before. The Biohealth Capital Region was just recognized by GEN as the #3 Top US Biotech Cluster, a goal that regional leaders have been aiming for since 2016. The greater Washington region also ranked 3rd among 25 U.S. metros for life science talent in 2023 according to CBRE.
However, 2023’s recessionary period is delivering a major setback from the previously forecasted decade-long biotech boom and has caused significant atrophy across the industry where many companies are shrinking or remaining stagnant, and new or early-stage companies are not getting the funding they need to grow. The result is that the biotech jobs that were once so abundant, are no longer there.
