Layoffs have begun at Biogen Inc., just a few weeks after CEO Christopher Viehbacher said the company would cut another 1,000 jobs in what amounted to a "complete redesign."
Cambridge-based Biogen employees began posting about the changes on LinkedIn on Thursday. Some offered help to departing colleagues, while others announced that they were open to work.
Ripples have already begun to spread through Greater Boston's tight-knit biopharma community. Alexion commercial analytics and insights director John Veytsman extended his "sincerest sympathy" to the laid-off Biogen employees, as well as his network at Alexion and AstraZeneca plc, in a LinkedIn post of his own.
It's not clear how many local Biogen employees were caught up in the restructuring, nor in what roles or functions. Some of the affected workers were on the company's legal team, indicating that the cuts are likely widespread. (Only one of the Biogen employees who'd posted on social media responded to the Business Journal, and they did not know how many people or what functions were impacted.)
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Biogen spokesperson Jack Cox declined to provide numbers, locations or functions, saying only that "the changes are global and taking place across the organization." He confirmed that the cuts in Massachusetts today are part of the 1,000-person reduction in force announced last month.
"This is an ongoing process and most changes will be communicated by the end of September with varying timelines across the business, regions and countries," Cox told the Business Journal.
