AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT OPTUM RX (11/04/25)

NOVEMBER 4, 2025 — 572 EMPLOYEES IN NEW JERSEY

The company is planning to lay off 572 employees, including 390 Optum Care employees, 122 Optum Medical Care employees, 49 Optum Services employees, and 11 employees at Optum Select Management, between February and March 2026.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 — 160 EMPLOYEES IN NEW JERSEY

The company has announced the planned layoff of 160 employees between December 11, 2024, and January 22, 202.

According to a company spokesperson, "We continually review the capabilities and services we offer to meet the growing and evolving needs of our businesses and the people we serve. As always, we will support affected team members with job placement resources and seek to deploy them where possible to any open roles within the company."

JULY 30, 2024 — 524 EMPLOYEES IN CALIFORNIA

Optum has announced that it will lay off 524 California employees, impacting urgent care locations, primary and specialty care clinics, and infusion centers, as well as staff positions, including 160 remote employees.

The cuts will take place in eight phases starting in the fall of 2024 year and continuing into early 2025.

A company spokesperson noted, “We continually review the capabilities and services we offer to meet the growing and evolving needs of our businesses and the people we serve. As always, we will support affected team members with job placement resources and seek to deploy them where possible to any open roles within the company.”

MAY 20, 2024 — TOLEDO, OHIO CLOSURE WITH LAYOFFS

Optum has announced that it is closing its Toledo, Ohio, facility and laying off 129 in three phases from July 15, 2024, to September 6, 2024. Positions include senior software engineers, senior technology product managers, associate business systems analysts, and associate business operations coordinators.

This follows April’s layoffs of 114 employees in Brentwood, Tennessee, and remote locations working in its naviHealth unit, which manages post-acute healthcare services.

According to a company spokesperson, “We are committed to making healthcare more affordable for our customers and the consumers we serve. As part of that commitment, we regularly review our products, services, staffing requirements and real estate needs to ensure they align with our evolving business to best meet the needs of our customers while we operate as effectively and efficiently as possible."

DECEMBER 12, 2021 — WARNING LAYOFFS AHEAD

Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, America's largest healthcare benefits manager will acquire Nashville, Tennessee-based Change Healthcare, a provider of technology, data analytics, and software for revenue and payment cycle management and clinical information exchange solutions for the healthcare industry, by the early part of 2022.

Employees associated with Optum and ChangeHealthcare’s data analytics group should expect some level of restructuring, consolidation, and the elimination of redundancies leading to layoffs.

DECEMBER 2, 2020 — Original post…

Irvine, California Optum RX, a pharmacy services company, has announced that the company will be permanently closing its Las Vegas, Nevada pharmacy facility and laying off 161 employees, 135 layoffs commencing December 24, 2020; 22 on January 6, 2021; and the remainder on January 13, 2021.

According to a company spokesperson, "We do not take these decisions lightly. All affected employees will receive no less than 60 days' compensation and benefits from the date on which the employees receive notice of their employment loss. In addition, the company is offering severance as well as career outplacement services to all affected employees."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT IRONWOOD PHARMACEUTICALS

Boston, Massachusetts-based Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company specializing in gastrointestinal products, has announced a reduction in force affecting 35% of its workforce. Approximately 100 employees are impacted with layoffs commencing in first quarter 2021.

The layoffs were driven by a downturn in the pharmaceutical industry and the discontinuance of their drug used to treat refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease. According to published reports, the company experienced trouble with its drug trials. According to a company spokesperson, there are no products in the research pipeline pending a reevaluation of opportunities.

"Ironwood plans to implement an organizational restructuring, reducing headcount by approximately 100 full-time employees, or nearly 35% of the current workforce. This is expected to affect both field-based and home-office employees, including the relevant general & administrative support functions. Following the changes, Ironwood expects to have approximately 210 full-time employees. The planned workforce reduction is anticipated to be substantially completed in the first quarter of 2021."

"Following the changes, Ironwood expects to have approximately 210 full-time employees. The planned workforce reduction is anticipated to be substantially completed in the first quarter of 2021."

“We have made the difficult decision to re-align our resources and capital with our business moving forward. With a streamlined organization that we believe will be positioned well to deliver in this current environment, we aim to continue our efforts to maximize LINZESS and to drive further growth and profitability. There are approximately 70 million people today living with GI diseases in the U.S., and we remain steadfast in our mission to advance GI medicines and redefine the standard of care for these patients.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT ROCHE / GENENTECH (07/26/25)

JULY 26, 2025 — ANOTHER ROUND OF LAYOFFS

The company has announced plans for another round of job reductions at its South San Francisco headquarters. The reduction will impact 87 employees, including technical and leadership roles, business analysts, data scientist-engineers, and several senior scientists, and commencing on September 15, 2025, with further separations continuing through January 2026. These job cuts are part of a larger workforce restructuring effort at Genentech.

JUNE 11, 2025 — 143 HQ EMPLOYEES

The company has announced a reduction in force, impacting 143 employees in its San Francisco, California, company headquarters. The lay-offs will be complete by July 14, 2025.

According to a company statement, “The success and sustained growth of our business hinges on our ability to proactively identify innovation opportunities early and adapt to a changing external environment. This requires us to allocate and sometimes shift resources judiciously to enhance operational efficiency.”

APRIL 14, 2024 — 500 LAYOFFS

It appears the company has targeted 436 headquarters employees, effective June 5, 2024.

According to a company spokesperson, “Note that this limited reduction will allow us to shift resources to the areas that we believe can provide the greatest impact for patients. We are actively hiring in a number of areas to bring forward our most promising molecules and capabilities, and we project that the overall workforce across Roche will remain stable throughout 2024.”

AUGUST 17, 2023 — 130 LAYOFFS IN VACAVILLE, CALIFORNIA

Roche’s Genentech biologics plant in Vacaville, California, has announced plans to lay off 130 employees by the end of 2023 in response to declining demand for its injected medications.

According to a company statement, “Following a detailed operational analysis, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 130 positions at our Vacaville facility by the end of the year. We are making this organizational change in response to current and anticipated production requirements, the volumes required for some of our new medicine formulations, and shift schedule adjustments.”

MARCH 28, 2023 — 265 EMPLOYEES IN SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Genentech, an independent subsidiary of Roche, has announced the closure of its close its South San Francisco biotechnology drug production facility and lay off 265 employees.

A company spokesperson noted, "More than 15 years ago, we made a strategic decision to exit commercial manufacturing in South San Francisco. This decision was part of a thoughtful, long-term plan to focus clinical supply manufacturing in South San Francisco, where it is co-located with our R&D organization while moving commercial manufacturing to other sites in our global manufacturing network.”

“We deeply value and respect all of our employees and their contributions to the legacy — and future — of manufacturing here in South San Francisco. They are integral to our ability to deliver innovative medicines to those who need them, and we are committed to supporting those whose jobs have been impacted during this time."

AUGUST 10, 2022 — 130 EMPLOYEES IN VACAVILLE, CALIFORNIA

Roche has confirmed that 130 workers will be laid off in its Genentech biologics plant in Vacaville, California by year-end 2022.

According to a company spokesperson, “We are making this organizational change in response to current and anticipated production requirements, the volumes required for some of our new medicine formulations, and shift schedule adjustments. The company is committed to the continued success of our operations in Vacaville, which is our largest manufacturing facility and a vital part of the global Roche network.”

DECEMBER 22, 2021 — 52 LAYOFFS AT ROCHE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT HUB IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Roche is continuing its cost-cutting/efficiency initiative and requiring its subsidiary, Genentech, to lay off 52 employees, including 10 management associates, the global head of the lifecycle team office, a principal global medical science director, and two program managers. Layoffs are scheduled for January 4, 2022.

According to a company statement, Genentech said it is redeploying additional resources in its product development team to "projects directly involved in developing medical advances to support the sustainable growth of our portfolio. The success and long-term growth of our business depends on our ability to respond to change, appropriately allocate resources and manage our work efficiently. We continually evaluate our operations to ensure we remain well-positioned to meet the needs of patients today and deliver on our growing pipeline of new medicines in the future."

JULY 1, 2021 — LAYOFFS ON THE HORIZON AT ROCHE

Roche is in the process of reviewing its global business and has suggested that there can be 300 - 400 layoffs in the near future.

According to a company spokesperson, “Roche is taking a close look at its organization of more than 100,000 employees in a ‘new prioritization of the work.’ No further decisions have been made at this time."

AUGUST 10, 2020 — Original post…

South San Francisco, California-based Genentech, the biotechnology research and drug manufacturing subsidiary of the Basel, Switzerland-based Roche Group, has announced a restructuring that will see approximately 474 permanent layoffs.

According to a company spokesperson, “We recently launched a new customer-engagement approach that will transform the way we serve patients, physicians, providers, payors, and pharmacies across the country. We are transitioning from a national strategy and organizational model to one focused around local health care ecosystems.”

“Genentech expects the planned action, which is a layoff of a subset of employees in South San Francisco and the field-based sales force, to be permanent.”

The company reinforces that these layoffs are not related to the Covid-19 pandemic, any ongoing clinical trials, or specific products.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?