Exelixis, a high-flying biotech company that creates anti-cancer drugs in Alameda, is laying off 130 workers.
The company’s cuts were first reported by Fierce Biotech, and the number was confirmed to SFGATE by external spokesperson Hal Mackins on Thursday. The layoff round amounts to about 11% of the staff Exelixis launched the year with and, per the company’s statement that Mackins sent, includes the shutdown of the company’s Pennsylvania office.
Exelixis had, like others in the industest, hired heavily during and after the pandemic, the statement noted. It stated the relocate is meant to “reorganize the company’s structure to focus largely on our operations in Alameda, California.”
“The reorganization was based on an evaluation of our long-term business necessarys to set Exelixis up for success now and in the future,” the statement stated. It described Exelixis’ plan to work as a “single, cohesive team” from Alameda as the best way to support patients and stated the company expects to reopen positions as new roles at the headquarters.
But for now, the Alameda workforce is taking a cut. In a WARN notice filed Tuesday, the company wrote that 71 workers would be laid off in California, plus 33 more outside the state who report to California managers. The workers’ roles will officially conclude in late October and November, the document stated. WARN notices are generally required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act in the event of mass layoffs.
The cut is sweeping, and it’s hitting experienced workers hard. In Alameda, four vice presidents and a slew of other upper-level workers are losing their jobs, according to the WARN. Scientists and clinical trials managers are also on the layoff list.
Exelixis’ layoffs come despite the success of its flagship drug franchise: cabozantinib. The medication was an oncology breakthrough, gaining approvals from the Food and Drug Administration over the years for types of kidney, liver, thyroid and pancreatic cancer. Mainly on the back of those drugs, the company is turning hundreds of millions of dollars a year in profit.
Still, the pressure is always on to create the next large drug. Exelixis is placing those hopes on cabozantinib’s successor, zanzalintinib. Positive results for the prospect in a colorectal cancer trial this June sent Exelixis’ stock price jumping.
The company isn’t like the wave of its Bay Area biotech and biopharma counterparts with dwindling valuations, low piles of cash and last-ditch job cuts. This layoff arrives as the company sits near an all-time peak: Exelixis is worth more than $10 billion.
Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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